The Soul of a Weapon
by Thrippa
Summary: Shadow, chasing fragments of the Black Comet, is knocked out by an explosion of Chaos energy and finds a being from his past haunting both his nightmares and his waking moments.
1. The Soul of a Weapon

A.N: Here we go. This follows after _Lost and Found_ and comes an indeterminate time before _Three There Are._ Due to the peculiarities of Sonic Battle, the dialogue is going to vary a bit more than I usually prefer, but since many of the characters are caricatures of themselves and there are internal contradictions (If Eggman was so determined to get all the Chaos Emeralds, why did he dump the Gizoid at the beach with one inside? And if it already had one, why was it nonfunctional until Sonic found it? FYI, the first Chaos Emerald he gets in this story is from Tails, although it's not specified in the story.) Anyway, spoiler warnings for Sonic Battle, of course, a few hints to Sonic Chronicles: the Dark Brotherhood, and references from a lot of other Sonic games.

**The Soul of a Weapon**

A light flared high in the southern sky, scarlet blazing through orange to a brilliant white. It shifted slightly, growing in size as it slowly dropped down, like a white-hot poker being drawn down an inverted bowl. The increase in size was a bad sign; for it indicated how quickly the meteor was approaching the small town. But no one panicked, for the few people who saw the midmorning shooting star were already aware of its approach. Among them was a black hedgehog with red stripes on his quills and limbs, and this light was the reason for his visit . A priceless gem glowed with an inner, scarlet light in one hand as his crimson eyes steadily watched the light in the sky grow ever larger, ever lower. It was bright enough now that the humans with him had to shield their eyes, in spite of the sunglasses they wore, but his gaze never wavered. He raised the hand holding the gem, idly scratching an itch amid the tuft of longer white fur on his chest with his thumb. Suddenly his eyes narrowed, and his fingers tensed around the red crystal. As if in response it flared even brighter, and the light in the sky exploded. Shadow closed his eyes a few minutes later as the resultant gust of wind reached them, chasing after the thunderclap of detonation. Mentally, however, he was still using the gem's Chaos energy to trace all the fragments of the Black Comet section, making sure that they either flew high enough to burn up properly on the way back down, or fell harmlessly clear of human habitations and infrastructure.

Even as he traced the final pieces, he heard a cell phone go off, and one of the agents accompanying him answered quickly, then announced that another piece of debris had been reported. He returned with the humans to the helicopter GUN had provided and took great care as he climbed the (unfortunately human-sized) steps not to show just how tired he was. He strapped himself in and crossed his legs on the oversized seat as the aircraft lifted, then tipped his head back against the seat and closed his eyes.

_Even with the aid of the Chaos Emerald, I'm not sure how much more of this I can do. It's not the blasting of the debris - it's not even holding the shield below it; it's the tracking of all the smithereens. Raw force I can pull from the Emerald, but the mental focus comes from __**me**__, and I'm running low on that. And that's with twice as many Emeralds as they think I have! _In addition to the red one that had been presented to him by the GUN Commander at the start of this mission, he had his own, the green one, that he had managed to hang onto after releasing the seven gems from the Eclipse Cannon's core. _But at least they don't think it's my fault, this time. _He had been assured by not only the GUN Commander (who had been his avowed enemy prior to their 'moment of truth' on the ARK), but also by the President, a number of astronomers and other scientists, Rouge the bat, and Sonic the Hedgehog - _as if __**he'd**__ know anything about it! _Shadow snorted mentally- that his initial calculations on where to place the Black Comet before destroying it had been correct. Between the location of the Comet at its destruction and the kinetic energy imparted by the Cannon's beam, few if any of the large fragments should have fallen to Earth. Those that were not propelled away from the planet's orbit might have been snared by the moon's gravity, but they was it. There was certainly no reason for him to expect that _every single _piece of the Comet would U-turn and head directly for the Earth.

The majority were small enough that they vaporized in the atmosphere anyway, but the material of which the Comet was composed proved highly resistant to burning up on re-entry, which meant the big bits could make it to the ground. So far, Shadow had destroyed seventeen of the bigger fragments, ranging from bus-sized to city block-sized. Several others had hit the ocean or uninhabited parts of the globe, causing major destruction where they hit land, or tidal waves in the sea. Sonic had put himself in the hospital briefly by trying to catch one with his bare hands, or some similarly idiotic stunt. GUN forces and the dokan military forces had turned out with various cannons and missiles to try and blow the pieces into smaller, less damaging sizes, but with mixed success. _And no one else can do what I can. Sonic could go Super with all seven Emeralds, but even Super Sonic couldn't stop all of these at once, and four of the Emeralds are completely missing at the moment. So. It must be me, the Ultimate Life-form, with my innate Chaos abilities, a two-Chaos Emerald power boost, and the best mathematic and spatial geometry training flash-learning can provide, to stop as many of these as I can, whatever the personal cost. And even if it's not my fault, I'm still the one who caused this mess by blasting the Comet in the first place, which makes it my responsibility. _Shadow sighed, feeling the shift in altitude and velocity as the helicopter began to descend. _I can sleep when this is over; right now I have to do what I can to protect this planet, as I chose to do._ He unstrapped as the door was opened, and stepped out to pulverize another portion of giant worm secretion, or whatever the Black Comet had been made of. Best guess anyone had was that since the Comet had been organic and the Black Arm's technology mostly 'alive' to varying degrees, the fragments themselves were imbued with the Comet's last orders - to land on the planet Earth; so therefore they had made this impossible trip back to target the planet. _Thank goodness for small mercies - at least the toxic gas lakes burned up or dispersed as they were supposed to. _Something niggled at his attention. He ignored it, focusing on the approaching boulder - _Good lord, that's no boulder! That's a mountain!_

Fortunately they were in a wilderness area this time, so no other buildings or people to worry about. The irregular chunk of 'rock' was easily the largest he'd dealt with yet, and he scrabbled for enough power to not only shield the area below the behemoth but his allies and the helicopter as well, and he needed still more to blast the cursed thing and track all the resulting bits. He dragged power from both Emeralds and felt a not-too-distant response. Another Chaos Emerald! Without conscious thought he grabbed power from it, as well. The meteorite exploded with a noise too loud to be heard, that would have smashed them all with the concussion if he hadn't held the shields, and he scrambled frantically to detonate the smaller but still huge secondary rocks. He'd nearly managed to get everything safely shrunken or returned to space when the third Emerald _**screamed**_ inside his head, overloading his already stretched-thin defenses and plunging him into darkness with an image of shattering glass.


	2. Discovery of a Weapon

1. Discovery of a Weapon

Rouge the Bat sauntered along the strip of carpet leading to the Presidential Office door. Most people making such a trip either marched in approved military fashion or with quick, nervous strides if they weren't military. Rouge was well aware that some people, who apparently hadn't enough to do, whispered that her 'lack of respect' was because she was dokan and used that a proof that dokan in general held no respect for humans as a species. Rouge wasn't certain how much respect she had for humanity as a species, but she did know that she'd hold the same degree of respect for the dokan President as the human one, and show that respect just as little. She knew her strengths as well as her weaknesses, and since the President had called her, he needed something that neither he nor his usual coterie of soldiers and spies could accomplish. Therefore, she had something he wanted, and she intended to be certain he remembered the fact. The guards outside the door recognized her and showed her right in._ He must really want something badly_, she thought. _Usually he tries to play it as cool as I do, and makes me wait._ She suspected that he rather enjoyed their bluff and counter bluff; as any good bargainer knew, the trick was to convince the other person you didn't really need the sale, or the item being sold. Or in this case, she pretended she didn't need the job and associated fee, and he pretended he didn't really need HER services.

This time though, he was seated at his desk, drumming the fingers of one hand agitatedly, while flipping back and forth between two pages of a document in front of him. He had the air of someone hoping that if they looked _one more time _the bad news would have changed to something better. She hoped it wasn't more Black Comet pieces; Shadow was still unconscious in the hospital after he'd collapsed while tackling the biggest of them, and _she_ certainly couldn't handle anything capable of putting the Ultimate Life-form on his back. The President looked up as she crossed the room. "Agent Rouge, we need your assistance urgently! An ancient weapon, 'Gizoid', which was sealed and misplaced fifty years ago, has been recovered by Dr. Eggman. You can get all the necessary information at the Central Lab." He pulled a small ID card out of a tray and shoved it at her. "You may have free access to the Central Lab with this pass. We're counting on you, Rouge. The safety of the Nation is in your hands."

"Yes sir, Mr. President!" answered the bat, taking the pass automatically. She was surprised by his directness as well as the urgency in the his voice. Whatever this 'Gizoid' was, it must be truly powerful; he seemed to consider it more critical than the remaining Comet-meteorites. Her curiosity getting the better of her, she decided to forgo the usual bargaining and discussion. She'd head straight on to Central Labs and find out why the President was in a lather. But it wouldn't do to let him forget that she was a freelance operative, not a government employee. As she walked out the door, she tossed back over her shoulder the warning, "By the way, don't forget about my reward!" If he replied, she didn't hear.

She strode back up the hall at a heel-thumping pace, now all business. Well, mostly all business. Or maybe, mostly all _government_ business. The Central Lab computers tied in with several government computers that she hadn't had much luck accessing from outside, and there were a few details that she'd like to . . . clarify. Like the finer points of the National Museum's new 'totally secure' security system. Their overconfidence was just begging to be punctured, and she was the bat with the stickpin. Not that she'd actually steal any of the _big_ treasures from the Museum; but for every item on display, there were dozens more in the back, half-forgotten, wholly forgotten, or not even catalogued! If a few of those went missing - well they didn't do anyone any good tucked away in a storage chest; gemstones were intended to, and _deserved_ to be, seen. Even if only by one person. And the major treasures being rearranged or left in the Lost and Found box would focus attention there rather than in the back rooms.

She was jolted out of her planning by a janitor carrying a dustpan full of sweepings. He collided with her, spilling the load of dust and candy wrappers on her trousers and boots. Muttering apologies frantically, he brushed her off and scuttled away. She dusted her legs off again, noting that she now had an extra 'gem' on the rhinestoned heart of her left boot. She pretended not to notice, merely glaring at the janitor's back and muttering under her breath as she exited.

Once out in the street, she took wing, flying directly to the towering skyscraper that held Central City Laboratories. Landing before the entrance, she posed for the security camera. "OK," she announced, "now that I have official approval from my boss I can access the government computer system and gather all kinds of information on various treasures!" She strongly suspected that the extra 'rhinestone' that had been planted on her boot was a bug, but she wasn't certain how well it could pick her up over the traffic in the street. Still, might as well give the eavesdropper a show; she had an image to maintain, after all. _And_ it would help to cover her real thefts, when they found the things she pretended to be interested in stayed right where they were.

When the door slid open she showed her lab pass to the robot inside. A very bored-looking human guard perked up somewhat as she strutted towards him, then more as she intentionally struck a pose that tended to make males' brains drop into their trousers. Not that she had any interest in human men, but she'd noticed that both dokan and human males tended to fixate on 'female' first, and nothing else second. It was supremely useful for her larcenous activities, and for certain of her spying tasks as well. In this instance, though, it was merely amusing to befuddle the poor guy. The guard proved more than willing to show her to a computer alcove, offering to help her get it started. She fluttered her eyelashes and thanked him, laughing inwardly as he fumbled his way to the Security log-in screen. She could have done it faster herself, but it wouldn't have been as much fun. "Let's see," she said finally, after he'd returned to his post. "Information on unlocking the security system on that art gallery . . . . Or maybe I should look up the National Museum first?" She giggled for the benefit of her unseen eavesdropper, her fingers flying across the keys. Not to call up either the gallery or the Museum data, though - she had a mission and that was the top priority. She giggled again, playing her chosen role to the hilt. "This is so exciting! I'm going to have all the information that'll allow me to gain access to all the treasures by the time I'm done here!" She sat back and hit a final key. In a louder voice she said, "Now Mr. Computer, tell me everything!"

To her surprise, she got back an error beep and the message 'Login error . . . This data is currently being accessed by another user.' "What? How can that be?" Temporarily falling out of her charade, she frowned at the screen. She was long accustomed to computer systems, but she hadn't encountered a network before that allowed only one person to access records at a time. Access restricted to one or a few people, yes, but not one-at-a-time. She quickly repeated her initial query, only to get the same message. All the passcodes she knew (including several she wasn't supposed to know) failed to gain her access, although she did determine that no other computers in the building were currently being used. Which meant that someone had broken into the supposedly secure network. "Come on!," she fumed. "This is a government computer system. No one else should have access to it!" _Especially since this is one I've tried repeatedly to breach myself without ever succeeding._ Muttering to herself, she tried something else: a little trick that Shadow had shown her. "I'll find you! Confirm login username . . . ."

She leaned back in her chair with a snort of disbelief. "Dr. . . . ?"_ Of all the egotistical, arrogant . . . . Well, who else? _ The username 'Dr. Eggman' blinked on the screen. She'd expected an alias - she never logged in under her own name - but she doubted anyone would be bold enough to use this name. Except Eggman himself. "Aha! I guess I've got my work cut out for me! Let's see where he's accessing the computer from." This wasn't something the computer itself could do, but accessing the security files revealed a nearby broadcasting point and a few other tricks presented her with a neat satellite image of a bright and shiny spot just across the main highway from the lab. "Hey, that's just right around the corner. I guess I 'd better go pay him a little visit." Remembering her eavesdropper, she slipped a hand into the pouch she wore on her belt, and thumbed on a tiny device. It vibrated slightly, and she knew that it was now distorting the signals from the bug hooked on her boot. This would be a private party. She slipped out of Central Labs without disturbing the guard's nap, and flitted quickly in the direction of the highway. Sure enough, just behind a cluster of crape myrtles she spotted the Eggmobile and its rotund inhabitant. He appeared to be focused on the screen in front of him, so she flew quickly higher, then crossed the road and dropped behind him, listening intently.

"Hmph! I was right! I needed seven Chaos Emeralds and the key word in order to 'Link' with the Gizoid to resurrect it!! Dang it," swore the Doctor, looking up from his screen, "I should've never tossed that thing away!" Suddenly realizing he wasn't alone, he spun the hover pod to face Rouge.

"Hey, Doctor! Long time no see!" Her tone was ironic; actually she'd seen him fairly recently, on the Black Comet when they'd tried (and failed) to face down Black Doom. But at that point they'd been on the same side - as Eggman had pointed out, he could hardly take over the world if there was no world left. Now it sounded as if he was back to his old tricks.

"Rouge?" He blinked at her as if he didn't quite recognize her. Then he returned his gaze to his viewscreen. "Sorry, but I'm quite busy right now."

She snorted. "I'm sure you are, doctor . . . ." She let her voice trail off ambiguously.

He frowned but didn't look up. "What're you babbling about?"

She shrugged. "You know, you're wanted by the government for questioning about a certain item."

He snorted himself, in disgust. "I tossed that piece of junk at the beach already!"

"What?" That was not what she'd expected to hear! "You threw it away?"

"The world's deadliest weapon?" he sneered, sarcasm dripping from the phrase. "What a joke! That worthless thing can't even listen to basic instructions! It's probably making friends with the crabs right about now!"

"With crabs?" The conversation had gotten away from her. This Gizoid thing that scared the president was a major weapon . . . and Eggman had thrown it out? It made no sense!

But Eggman was continuing, "I used the raw data from that robot to build a much better robot. Its name is E-121 Phi!" A dull grey humanoid robot with three 'horns' on its head stepped around the hovering craft and stared at the bat silently.

"What an ugly contraption," said Rouge. In truth, it didn't look like much; dokan sized, bipedal, with bulbous eyes the only features on the head other than the backswept horns.

"These guys are powered by pieces of the Chaos Emeralds. I created Phi by using Emerald shards from the Chaos Emerald I crushed!" He chortled gleefully.

Rouge blinked, several pieces of information clicking into place. "You created this . . ." she said slowly while her mind raced. She'd never heard of anyone smashing Chaos Emeralds, but wondered what effect that might have on Chaos energy; if there was some sort of backlash, the power surge might have been what overwhelmed Shadow.

"And I programmed them to collect all seven Chaos Emeralds!" crowed the scientist. "In no time, I should have seven Chaos Emeralds . . . . Oh, I forgot you're also looking for the Chaos Emeralds. So I must insist that you stay out of the way for a while."

The white bat gave the human a disbelieving look. "Seriously, you don't think that you can stop me, do you Doctor?"

"Hah! You haven't seen the power of my new creation! Go, Phi number one!"

The robot charged forward with unexpected speed. Rouge leaped into the air, kicking forward with her steel-rimmed boots while unfurling her wings and flapping vigorously. She knocked the robot back but had to scramble for more height, as it recovered much faster than she'd expected. _The doctor's outdone himself_, she thought as she looped around. She got behind the machine and kicked it in the head causing it to stumble forward. It rolled in a manner reminiscent of Sonic or Shadow, and swung back towards her as it came to its feet again. She focused on the join between its head and body, and aimed her next blow at that possible weak point. She was in luck, for the head ripped clear of the negligible neck, and the body collapsed to the ground. A slim shard of yellow light spilled out of the head as it rolled, and she dove for it faster than the Eggmobile's grabber hands could reach it.

"I guess it wasn't as tough as you thought it was. I'll take this Emerald shard!" She waved the crystalline fragment at the Doctor tauntingly.

The human scowled, his brows drawing together above his dark glasses.

Dang," he muttered again. "It looks like I need the original. . ." Looking up at Rouge he growled, "I'll let you go this time, but I won't take it so easy on you the next time you get in my way!" The graspers clamped onto the fallen robot and its head, and the Eggmobile whizzed away.

"Get in your way?" repeated Rouge. _Big threat there. Surely he doesn't think I'll give up when that robot's all he can muster. Although the skills were unusually good; certainly better than the construction. On the other hand . . . . _She considered what she'd overheard as she arrived. "Hmm," she said to herself as she glided back towards the lab, "It could get awfully complicated if the doctor has already linked himself with the Gizoid first . . . I know he said that he tossed it on the beach, but . . . . Oh well, I'd better find out more about Gizoid at the lab. I can't let the doctor take all the fun for himself."

She forgot that she'd snuck out to track the doctor, and the human guard, waking at an inopportune moment, tried to stop her at the door. "Hey, you!"

Rouge glared daggers at him. How many white dokan bats came in here? Honestly! She waved the pass irritatedly in his direction. "Here's my pass," she snapped. "Now leave me alone."

"My apologies, madam!" He retreated promptly, wisely not offering to help this time. Rouge stalked back to her cubicle. She remembered at the last moment to flip off her bug suppressor, so that the eavesdropper could once again hear clearly.

"OK, now where should I begin?" She took a deep, calming breath and logged into the unit. This time it accepted her password readily enough, and she started a search on the term 'Gizoid'. She closed her eyes while the search ran, tying to figure out why she was suddenly so worried. _The doctor's not that much of a problem; he's got plenty of intelligence but very little common sense, and a surplus of ego to cloud the little he's got. Although I don't like the idea of him crushing Chaos Emeralds. I wonder if that's what knocked Shadow down. It never occurred to me that it was possible, but old Knuckles has repaired the Master Emerald several times, so I guess you can do the same to the Chaos Emeralds. I wonder if that'll have an ongoing effect on Shadow's power, or if it'll be temporary._ What she knew of Shadow's power was comprised of information she'd learned from Professor Gerald's old notes in the GUN database and from Shadow himself, and neither of them totally understood how the Chaos energy / Chaos Emerald / Ultimate Life-form triangle worked. At the hedgehog's request, she'd handed her (illegal) copies of those papers and files over to him; it was safer than keeping them where she might get caught with them, after all. However, it meant they were no longer available for easy reference.

She cracked an eye open to check the computer screen, but it was still searching. _So, I have a boss who's terrified of this weapon - which is apparently a robot - and wants me to find what the doctor's doing with it; an enemy who's decided it's useless and dumped it after duplicating it (not that the duplicate is much of a challenge), and is tracking down Chaos Emeralds to power up said duplicate; the weapon itself which is malfunctioning and at the beach unless someone's found it; someone planting bugs on me for reasons yet to be determined; and a planet that is barely out from under an alien invasion and the threat of residual meteorites. Not to mention the best resource regarding powers and abilities of Chaos Emeralds is unconscious in the hospital. What's a treasure hunter to do?_

The computer chirped at her, and she tabled her thoughts, opening her eyes and leaning forward to study the screen. 'Warning! Highly Confidential!' was blazoned across the screen in red boldface type. Below that was the standard government warning about what would happen if unauthorized people read it, or authorized personnel used it in unauthorized means. The bat skipped that part, she'd read it all before, too many times. She scrolled down to the actual information that was considered so desperately secret. 'Battle weapon discovered in ancient ruins ', _hmm, I wonder which ones, _she thought, 'called Gizoid . . . Technique to acquire all forms of weaponry is based on super-science technology'. That made her sit up, and _really_ wish she knew which ancient ruins the thing had been found in._ Super-science technology. Like the stories of the old Babylonians or their neighbors? _Most people wrote the tales off as distorted legends of magic, but Rouge had explored some of the ruins - not the Babylonians', their legendary flying island had apparently vanished off the face of the earth; but the ancient gryphon ruins that lay half buried in the mid-eastern deserts - and had seen for herself bits of genuine technology that Dr. Eggman himself might envy. _Not to mention some gorgeous bits of jewel-inlaid mosaic and golden statuary._ No jewelry, but she'd more than covered the expenses of the trip. She hunted for her place on the screen. It gave some more details about the acquisition process, concluding with, 'This process has no apparent limitations and will continue to loop indefinitely.'

Her turquoise eyes widened. No wonder the President was panicking. This robot, merely by seeing a weapon or fighting move a few times, could replicate it perfectly as a part of its built-in weaponry or its own fighting repertoire respectively - in other words, after watching the old video of the original nuclear tests a few times, this Gizoid could then launch from within itself a nuclear bomb. And all from a dokan-sized robot that looked completely innocuous, if the Doctor's copy was a good example of the original. The government and GUN were definitely going to want this one for themselves. _Which begs the question, if we know so much about it, how did it end up in Eggman's hands?_ "Hmm," she murmured aloud, "very interesting." She read on. 'Endless cycle,' noted the computer, 'Continuing cycle causes overload which can lead to Gizoid going out of control and destroying everything in its vicinity.' Her eyes widened again at the next bit of text. 'A sequel to an experiment created by Professor Gerald, conducted by Dr Kenneth Smithwyck, resulted in the Gizoid's destroying a major portion of the research facility at ARKauai. As a result the records and the weapon itself were sealed by the government. Five years later during inventory of the secure vaults the disappearance of the Gizoid was discovered.'

"Professor Gerald," she mused, "he's Shadow's creator." Remembering her eavesdropper, she added in a louder, gayer tone, "I think I may have hit the jackpot! I'm not all that interested in anything besides jewelry, but . . . this is something else. If I can train the robot to become the ultimate robot thief . . . all the jewelry in the world will be mine! So, where can I find this thing?" She clicked the shift key a few times to simulate typing, but kept reading the information on the screen. Some parts of the story were clearly missing, either deleted entirely or beyond even her current security clearance, but there was enough there to show just how dreadful this weapon could potentially be. She recalled Dr. Eggman's muttering about a 'Link', and located the reference. 'The output of its power is initiated by an external contact, and from that point on, it will only take orders from the one who initiated the contact,' she read. 'This act is called 'establishing a Link.''

"Hmm." She considered what she had. She needed more details; what was here was clearly the bare minimum. Perhaps Shadow had awakened? On the other hand, time would appear to be of the essence. "Since the doctor still doesn't seem to have created a 'Link' with it, I'd better hurry to find it and make it mine," she decided. "If someone else finds it before me, it could get quite complicated." She realized she wasn't quite at the bottom of the page and scrolled down to reveal one more line of text: 'It will, however, take orders from others if permission is given by its original master.' _Well that will simplify things. If I get to it first, I can form a 'Link' to be sure no one steals it, and then tell it to obey whomever the President wants me to hand it off to. And if someone beats me to it . . . _"I see," she said. "So I can make it mine as long as I get permission from its master. I had better go find this Gizoid now. The doctor said that he tossed it at the beach," she lowered her voice as if she thought someone might be listening, "I should head to Emerald Beach." She logged off and left the lab, murmuring sotto voce about plans for breaking in to the museums. She then 'accidently' stumbled over a metal trash can, taking care to clang her bugged boot into it very loudly. Bending to rub ostentatiously at her foot, she picked the faux rhinestone off and tucked it into the pouch that held the blocking device. Flicking the device on, which she did next, probably caused a rather nasty feedback squeal wherever the eavesdropper was. She hoped they'd been listening closely to her inane mumbling. _Serves them right for being so careless_, she thought. Of course, she now couldn't go straight to the beach, but mid-week September wasn't a very busy time, and who'd bother an old robot anyway? Besides, if someone linked with it first, well, she could certainly induce a male to tell the robot to listen to her, and she was pretty certain she could talk a female finder around to doing the same. Especially if they didn't really know anything about what they'd found. _I need more information before I go after it. For instance: How do I form a 'Link'? Does it need Chaos Emeralds to function at all, or just for full power? How did such a dangerous weapon disappear from a government storehouse and why hasn't it turned up before? _The loss of it didn't particularly surprise her, but why would someone steal a weapon and then sit on it for fifty years? _Well, forty-five years, give or take. Eggman would have been about 5 or 6 then, so I doubt he's had it all this time. First stop should be to check with Shadow, and see what he knows. Then . . . Well, if he can't tell me anything I guess I'll have to go up to the ARK, and see if I can ferret out any more of Gerald's records. _That had been something she'd wanted to do since the recording of his execution and threats had played, but in the aftermath of the second ARK incident she hadn't had a chance, and since then she'd just been too busy. And it hadn't seemed that important anyway.

She placed a quick call to her primary contact, alerting them to the bug and that she'd implied she was heading straight to Emerald Beach, then headed instead to the hospital in hopes of talking to Shadow.


	3. History of a Weapon

2. History of a Weapon

Muttering irritably to herself, Rouge piloted her small plane towards the ARK. With the first mission she'd been given there, she'd been assigned a vehicle that could handle spaceflight as well as atmospheric flight, and it had proved its worth during the Black Arms invasion. She was now returning once more to the ARK, because the trip to talk to Shadow had proven a complete failure.

When she'd arrived at the hospital, she'd been told that visiting hours were over and that she'd need to come back - but only with some proof that she was a relative; no one else would be admitted. Her government credentials had at least waived the relationship requirement, but nothing else. She couldn't even find out how he was doing because of 'patient privacy'. Nothing daunted, she'd left the building and after a bit of work on her laptop, managed to hack into the hospital database to find out a room number. The medical details were encrypted and probably beyond her anyway (_why_ didn't doctors just speak English?), so she hadn't bothered with decoding them. With room number in mind, she'd flown to the fourth floor, counted down eight windows and peeked in. The two humans in the room were clearly not Shadow, so she'd glided to the opposite end of the building and tried again. This time she'd levered the window-latch open and landed inside; fortunately, although it was a double room, Shadow was the only patient at the moment. Unfortunately, he was completely unconscious, and a little judicious shaking failed to rouse him. A glance at the medical chart revealed the unintelligible medicalese she'd expected, but appeared to confirm that he hadn't woken up since being admitted. Rouge made one more try, whispering to him urgently and even invoking the sacred name of Maria Robotnik, but the black hedgehog didn't so much as twitch an ear. She glared at the still figure in the bed, tapping a boot toe on the linoleum. Picking up the sound of feet approaching in the hallway, she slipped back out the window, closed it behind her and set off to the airport.

Once in the air, she'd called in to her contact and learned that Sam Garret had been apprehended skulking around Emerald Beach. She was vaguely aware of the man, though she had no idea why he'd be spying on her, but his face was definitely that of the 'janitor' who'd planted the bug on her. Ah well, she'd figure that out later. Right now, she needed to get more information on this Gizoid.

Getting to the ARK proved a bit trickier than expected, due to the damage done in the Black Arms' attack. She had heard that GUN was planning to get crews up to repair the colony - though what would ultimately become of it was open to question - but the short-term response had been to tether several of the gravity switches in various areas and run the power up to maximum, to prevent any more parts from breaking loose or falling towards the Earth. Thus, Rouge had to not only avoid the floating debris, but also avoid the gravity globes' areas of effect, which didn't improve her mood any. By the time she managed to guide her ship into the docking bay, she was about ready to take someone's head off. An unfortunate GUN Beetle robot arrived to ward off the intruder, and found itself battered to bits by repeated kicks.

Rouge dusted the gloved fingertips of one hand lightly against her pink breastplate as she scanned for additional defenders, standing with one boot planted on the broken remains of the Beetle. When none appeared, she began working her way through the colony, heading for the research wing. She moved cautiously, not for fear of more robotic defenders, but in case of air leaks or other damage to the structure of the colony itself. Twice she did have to detour around areas where air-tight doors were solidly shut, and another time she backtracked of her own accord because of a peculiar odor in the air. Additionally, there were occasional corpses of Black Arms, or worse, fragments of bodies, but she ignored them and the death-smell that hovered around them. Reaching the research area at last, she hesitated, wondering which way to go. "Well let's see," she said aloud (the silence was getting on her nerves), "if I keep going this way, I can check Professor Gerald's old rooms and see if he hid anything interesting in them. Or, I can go that way," she turned her head to look at the appropriate hall, "and work my way down to the Eclipse Cannon's secret chamber. Hmm." She looked from one corridor to the other, weighing her options. She didn't even consider the 'official' colony computer, because if Gerald had anything to hide, it wouldn't be there; it would be in one of the computers he could restrict access to. Or not on a computer at all, she realized; from what she had studied about him, the Professor had been a compulsive note-taker, and scads of useless, temporary or inane info was jotted on margins of important notes, plans of his creations, and even the wall of his cell in Prison Island. Amid the calculations and everything else, he'd jotted down the menu of each meal and seasoning suggestions.

It was the possibility of hidden items that decided her, possibly because it aroused her treasure-hunting instincts. She strode decisively down the corridor, pausing briefly in the observation room right before the Professor's quarters, where she'd seen Shadow gazing pensively out at the Earth when she'd first met him. She spared the blue-and-white globe the merest glance before proceeding, though; nostalgia was something that happened to other people.

She opened the first door she came to. "Maria," she stated decisively. It was a young girl's bedroom, unmistakably. Not what she was looking for. She turned to the next door, on the opposite side of the hall. Her first reaction was professional disgust._ What sort of idiots did they have searching this place!? _On closer inspection, though she realized the room hadn't been searched; fifty years of neglect plus the stresses of the aborted Earth-dive and the battle with the Black Arms had merely put the finishing touches on the chaos left by a completely untidy resident. Wrinkling her nose fastidiously, Rouge began searching the room. It didn't take her long to find what she was looking for, but the hidden compartment behind the couch proved refractory to her initial attempts to open it. Grinning at the challenge, she settled herself on the floor beside the safe, pulled out a few useful tools, and set to work.

Her eventual reward didn't look like much. Fifty-plus years of the desert-dry air in the ARK had desiccated the leather cover to something that crumbled to powder in her hands. The endpapers and interior pages were still intact, though, brittle though they were. Rouge opened the book cautiously, and scowled to see that at least those two pages had been written in ink, now faded to lines and splotches. It looked like it should mostly be legible, but only with effort, and she wasn't fond of reading at the best of times_. I'll save it for now; see if I can't find something else. But I can't carry it like this, it'll disintegrate. _She glanced around the room, then stepped out into the hall. There hadn't been anything in Maria's room . . . . Door number three was clearly Shadow's bedroom, opposite that was a bathroom, and then the hall ended in a general living area. _Aha! _She thought triumphantly as she spotted the kitchen nook. A quick rummage through the cabinets turned up a plastic container big enough to hold the journal; she slipped it in carefully and fastened the lid. She tucked the container away, then returned to Gerald's room to finish her search.

Forty minutes later, she decided there was nothing else to find, so she sat down at the computer and flipped the power switch. The access codes for the Eclipse Cannon's computer proved to unlock this one as well, so she didn't have to work on cracking the passwords; she quickly had access to all of Gerald's public files. She set one search program to work on those, seeking the words 'Gizoid' and 'Chaos Emerald', but not expecting much of a result, while she worked at finding the Professor's private files. To her utter amazement, the public search proved successful at once; the official journal had a large amount of information on both topics. Gerald had actually entered government employ because of researches he'd done with a Chaos Emerald, while trying to create an improved power source for artificial limbs. The initial entry was noted as a summary of his prior research, done while he actually was a professor at a university. Rouge couldn't understand the more technical details of the initial report, but the important things were clear enough. _Interesting. I never realized the Chaos Emeralds actually affected living things by their mere proximity._ She scanned on through the entries quickly, smiling to herself at the ever increasing references to 'Dr. Bronston' who quickly became just 'Mary'. "No wonder Shadow doesn't know a female when he sees one," she said to herself, "it doesn't look like his creator did either."

She skimmed down to the initial mention of 'Gizoid', then had to back up until she found where the Professor first mentioned the robot, since he'd had it for months before identifying it. He'd had no idea what he'd found when he'd found it, apparently someone had simply dumped it in a storage warehouse for potential spare parts. Or maybe to look at later, and never gotten back to it. Regardless, Gerald had picked it up, looking for computer chips to replace ones he'd burned out trying to store Chaos energy, and been shocked to discover that it moved when brought into the vicinity of his violet Emerald and actually tried to drag itself towards it. Removal to an adjacent lab had returned the robot to its inert state. _No wonder Eggman couldn't get anything out of it, if he didn't have a Chaos Emerald on hand. Or perhaps he tried to power it with one of those shards? _She pulled out the shard she'd collected from the smashed Phi. Even in its fragmented form, the crystal glowed like a firefly, brightening and dimming while the color shifted subtly from yellow to gold, and on into orange, then back towards yellow again. She put it away again, and returned to her reading, wishing he'd filmed himself like he had for his put-down of Black Doom and his final words.

So, Professor Gerald had never himself found out where the Gizoid had come from, only that it had been entered into inventory with an ancient stone tablet. He and Dr. Bronston had discovered that both the materials and the circuitry were completely unlike anything modern humans or dokan had made, and that the thing was incredibly ancient, older even than the Echidnan Empire's collapse. The tablet had been sold to a dokan museum, so the two scientists had taken a trip south into the dokan lands to see it. (Gerald had _finally_ realized that he was head-over-heels for Mary.) They'd made a brief detour at Mary's insistence to inspect a new phenomenon that was occurring in the dokan lands, but later spread world-wide. _Now__** that's **__interesting. This says those golden rings only appeared then, they hadn't existed before._ Rouge made a note of that; it wasn't what she was looking for, but it might be valuable. She read on, to where Gerald recovered the tablet, skipping over the parts where he despaired of getting a useful translation. The Gizoid, which meant 'everything' . . . a figure or person falling from the stars . . . the destruction of the Fourth Great Civilization. . . a winged island, which he estimated predated the Echidnan Empire by two thousand years. Also, the 'power stones', critical for the functioning of the puppet, which was also called the 'Ultimate Being'. The bat laughed out loud at that. _Shadow's not as unique as he thought! Or do I mean original? _Rouge also recognized several of the things in the diary from her treasure-hunting background. The writing he described sounded like the Babylonian cuneiform, which was used by several cities in that area, at least two of which - including Babylon itself - were supposed to have possessed great 'magic' or technology. Rouge had seen the writing herself, prowling the ruins of one of the cities, and collected a cache of very valuable jewelry, apparently hidden by a thief and forgotten or lost.

She worked her way through the computerized diary until her stomach informed he it was way past time to eat. Rummaging for the provisions she'd brought, she returned to the living area, and was pleased to find that the microwave still worked. She returned to the computer afterwards. Skimming further, the Gizoid seemed to have vanished from the records. Finally the name popped up again, when the Gerald (now married with two sons) returned to ARKauai; the Professor had hid the robot right back where he'd found it, returning it to the junk sheds for six years. Determined to prevent the weapon from becoming a hazard, he intended to form a Link with it and prevent its obeying anyone else. Installing his Chaos Emerald in the thing, he was amazed when it actually tried to speak to him, but proceeded with his plan, showing him several stun-gun prototypes which were all that his conscience had allowed him to make. The Gizoid, which had apparently absorbed the English language during its prior time in the lab, seemed to find that acceptable and declared that it would follow his commands and never leave his side. _So, that's how you form a Link_, noted the bat, _you show it either physical or mechanical power. I wonder why the Doctor was muttering about Chaos Emeralds and key words? The Emeralds power it, but it apparently only needs one to form a Link._ The journal indicated that fighting moves would have been as effective had the scientist known any. Shortly after, Gerald denied the President's initial request to research eternal youth and health, ranting in his diary about how it violated natural human limits, and also his fears about its potential for racial strife it the government withheld such a discovery from the dokan. _Well, that certainly was a possibility_, conceded Rouge. There wasn't much institutional racism, largely due to the separation of the human and dokan nations, but there were plenty of individuals on both sides who disliked or despised the other side for one reason or another.

The bat hissed in irritation as the next several years' worth of entries dealt with some sort of polymorphic cell, then Gerald's grief over Mary's unexpected death. For a few months it seemed he'd already gone mad, as the entries became vague and distraught, then suddenly they snapped back into focus again, so tightly that Rouge couldn't believe that no one had foreseen the problems ahead. She shivered slightly, feeling a chill. Gerald was so wrapped up in his infant granddaughter, Maria, it was obvious that if anything happened to her he _would_ go mad.

Rouge had to get up and pace. She scowled in annoyance at herself. Not only was this not happening to her, it wasn't happening _at all _- it was the mere memory of something that had happened and been done with fifty years before she was born. Finally she forced herself back to the computer. There seemed to be little else to learn at this point; the majority of the diary was now devoted to Maria, although the Space Colony ARK was planned out and hammered at various supervisors and coworkers as an alternate research facility, to prevent further accidents such as the one that had killed Mary. Reading between the lines, Rouge suspected it was also a way to get the Gizoid out of easy view, as apparently several researchers had been asking about it. Its circuitry was adapted to create the Chaos drives, and then to power the Artificial Chaos robots that guarded the new ARK, while the Gizoid was set to carving out new chambers in the asteroid the space colony was being constructed on. Another dull spot: Maria got sick, was diagnosed with NIDS; Gerald accepted charge of Project: Shadow; the Biolizard; Chaos rats (that was new to Rouge, she'd never heard of Chaos rats); the Heal Units. Rouge smothered a yawn. Maria's parents moved up to the ARK, left to investigate an unusual comet, and died when their shuttle inexplicably exploded. References to a boy named 'Mokie', who was apparently one of Maria's friends. Maria's health crashed, Gerald decided the Biolizard wasn't suitable, nor the rats, and after much agonizing decided on a dokan hedgehog because of a friend of his who possessed the uncommon curling gene. _Hmm, wonder if this 'Rafe Curl' is any relation to Sonic? He can do the curl thing, too. _ Then GUN tried to remove all the researchers from the ARK. Gerald argued that Maria's treatment could not be continued on Earth, and won the right to stay. The new Project: Shadow was modified from the hedgehog embryo in storage, and modeled after - Rouge blinked in shock - modeled after an old mosaic that Gerald had found on Angel Island. The white bat grinned, she'd seen that mural once, right before Knuckles had chased her out of the underground palace. _So Shadow was supposed to have been gold . . . . I wonder if he knows that?_ Also, the Eclipse Cannon was designed and built. _Black Doom must have turned up, although I don't see any mention of him. Still, Gerald probably knew that 'private' is a meaningless term in government work. He wouldn't have committed anything treasonous to a computer log. _The Gizoid was rarely mentioned, but appeared to be still reduced to a common serving 'bot. Then the Biolizard went berserk, and the artificial Chaos along with her. The latter were shut down and the former put into stasis. And now again came motions to shut down the facility, and Gerald handed the Gizoid over to GUN. He dropped it off on ARKauai on his way to visit his new grandson Ivo. Rouge didn't make the connection at first, but when Gerald noted that the bald infant looked like an egg, it clicked, and she laughed aloud that Eggman's _nom de guerre _was inspired by a nickname was given by his grandfather. But now events came fast; the Gizoid was shown guns that were more powerful than Gerald's little stun toys, and switched its Link to the new researchers. They fed it weaponry info until it suddenly went berserk, and destroyed nearly the entire installation on Kauai. Professor Robotnik was hauled to Prison Island to answer for the robot's behavior and to repair it. _Now_, Gerald noted in his diary a line from the tablet: 'When the Gizoid had learned all that it could, it became a god of wrath and all was destroyed.' And speculated that had the robot possessed all seven Chaos Emeralds instead of just the one, the entire planet might have been destroyed. The Professor made several attempts to destroy the robot, but was unable to do so, so he set out to reprogram the AI to be emotion-based and free willed, apparently hoping that a robot that could feel fear and joy would be better able to resist the lure of destruction, if such destruction might put those it cared about at risk. And free will, of course, would mean that it couldn't be simply ordered to cause mayhem. (Rouge had a sudden vision of Omega, who was - intentionally or not - a free-willed, emotional robot created by Gerald's grandson who was very much in favor of mayhem, at least as it applied to Eggman and his other robots.)

And then, Gerald got the news about the ARK disaster, complete with a teary-eyed speech from the soldier who had supposedly stood by Maria's side as she died, killed by Project: Shadow when it went berserk. He reported the tale he was told word for word . . . and that was essentially the end of the diary. Rouge knew, from Shadow, what had _really_ happened at the end, that the soldiers had shot the child in cold blood and she had been dead before they got to her, but she had to admit it was a pretty little story. So tragic, and the last request of the dying girl, 'bring hope to humanity'. Not quite what she'd said to Shadow, but similar enough that it had probably fit her personality. Rouge wondered if Gerald had really believed the story. There was only one more entry, and it sounded like a farewell. In thoughtful silence the bat shut the computer down and headed back to her ship. She'd look at the notebook tomorrow, after she'd gotten a good night's sleep.

As it turned out, she didn't get to the written journal the next day; she decided she'd better go to the beach first to see if the robot was still there, or if Eggman really had retrieved it. She put on the sunhat and sunglasses she'd worn during the trip to Eggman's canyon base, but neither helped as much as she would have liked. Even the sight of the mysterious gold rings strung in midair along the beach failed to raise her spirits, although she remembered that Professor Gerald had written that they were a version of Chaos energy. She glided along the beach, squinting against the glare, and ducked quickly behind an empty lifeguard's stand when she spotted a cloud of sand approaching.

Sonic the Hedgehog, hero of the planet, was acting like the idiot he was. His initial sprint along a line of the golden rings morphed into some sort of shadow boxing, then he stopped near one of the outcrops of rock that were scattered along the otherwise sandy beach. Rouge abandoned her hiding spot and flew to the top of the rock.

She was just in time to hear Sonic sigh. "Man, I'm so bored." Rouge raised an eyebrow at the comment. It had been less than a month since the Black Arms invasion, and most of the intervening time had been punctuated by pieces of the Black Comet smashing to Earth. She knew that Sonic had nearly gotten himself flattened by one of the earlier ones. 'Boring' was not a word most people would apply to recent events. _Although that may be the problem. He's not completely stupid, and I suppose it's not easy for someone as impatient as he is to sit by and watch other people dealing with something he can't do anything about._ Then the hedgehog below her perked up, looking at something she couldn't see near another one of the outcrops. "Hmm?" she heard him say. "What's this?" He went halfway around the rock and exclaimed, "It's a robot!"

So much for finding it herself. Still, at least Eggman hadn't beaten her to it. She glided to the next outcrop and found a smooth spot where she could stretch out on her front and see without being seen. _Besides, Sonic's almost as easy as Knuckles to work around. Possibly easier in this instance, because he's so easygoing he won't see the harm in telling the robot to listen to me, whereas Knuckles would be suspicious of anything I said._ She watched and listened as the blue hedgehog asked the robot if it was all right. It really did look like Eggman's Phi robot; except that the former had been new, shiny silver and this one was a weathered gold and tan, they were practically identical. A faint hissing or buzzing sound came from the device, barely loud enough for the bat to hear. It certainly _looked_ more like a piece of junk than an all-powerful weapon.

Sonic sat back on his heels and scratched an ear. "I wonder if it's busted," he mused. He reached forward, tracing a line down the amber chest. A much brighter shade of yellow marked the track his glove had taken. Looking at his now-filthy fingertip, he snorted. "Look at all this dust. I wonder how long it's been here." He looked around, leaning back a bit to scan up and down the beach past the rocks, but didn't look up. He shook the robot sharply. "Hey! Are you all right?" he demanded again, loudly.

Rouge smothered her own snort. _Really, Sonic. Yelling at it is hardly going to– wait! _She blinked and wiggled a bit closer. She couldn't tell in the sunlight if there was a glow in the robot's eyes, but the head was slowly turning left, then reversed and tracked back to the right.

"Hey! It's moving now!" exclaimed the hedgehog. "Need any help?" He started trying to pull the battered android to its feet. "Can you walk by yourself?"

The robot buzzed a bit louder. Rouge scowled, trying to figure out what had activated it. Inspiration hit, and she pulled a small device out of the pouch on her belt. A glance at the tiny screen confirmed her hunch. _Bingo. Sonic's got some sort of Chaos energy residue, maybe from those rings he was picking up, maybe just 'cause it's him. Not much, but it must be enough to minimally activate the robot. I wonder if Shadow would have the same effect on it?_ She shoved the last thought away. Why was she thinking about Shadow now? She needed to see what Sonic was going to do with the robot. She'd bet her gem collection he'd haul it off to the fox boy.

"Can't speak, eh?" the hedgehog was asking the robot. It was upright, but only staying that way with his help. "Well, it figures. Can't expect much from ol' Eggman. Well, let's get you over to Tails' first, so we can help you out!"

Rouge mentally congratulated herself, then froze as the robot's buzzing suddenly became static-lashed words. "Show. . . . . .power. . . or I sh . . .all ob . . . ey . . . . Sha . . . ll conqu . . . r a . . . ll. . ." it rasped.

"Huh? What did you say? Show my power? Like this?" Laughing, the blue hedgehog raised a fist and generated a brief flare of Chaos energy. Fortunately the robot's crackling response kept Sonic from hearing the alarm generated by Rouge's Chaos detector. She hastily switched it off.

"What! Whoa!" exclaimed Sonic as the robot somehow seemed to grow slightly, becoming steadier on its feet and somehow more focused. "I sha . . .ll not . . . represent . . .and become. . . of all . . ." it crackled.

The puzzled hedgehog shook his head, muttering. Rouge missed the first part, but heard "I wonder if this thing can even be fixed. I better take it to Tails before it blows up." To the robot, he added, "Tails' house is north of town. Follow me!" He dashed off, then returned before the robot had completed its first slow step. Shaking his head he grabbed the robot by one arm and dragged it off up the beach.

Rouge sat up. _Looks like I arrived a little too late. It must have established a 'Link' when Sonic generated that Chaos burst. But with Sonic? What a strange choice - I wouldn't have thought he'd bother with an old robot, except maybe as target practice._

_Oh well, that won't stop the government's best agent from completing her mission! I'll just have to convince Sonic to tell the robot I'm in charge._ She'd let him get it to Tails first, though; she didn't fancy having to haul the thing around the city because it was unable to walk.


	4. A Weapon's Pursuit

3. A Weapon's Pursuit

Shadow twisted, turning in place, trying to see through the darkness that surrounded him. There was something out there, he was certain of that, but he couldn't see anything but blackness. It was so dark that _closing_ his eyes seemed to make things slightly brighter. He raised a hand to his face to make sure that his eyes _were_ actually open, and the - thing - out there started to speak.

"I was . . . created . . . ." A mournful, moaning voice, as if the winter wind had gained the power of speech.

"Awaken!"

"The Ultimate Life-form, Shadow the Hedgehog!"

Two voices, both different from the first. Black Doom's voice he recognized with a chill, but the last statement - had that been his own voice?

"Please, Shadow . . ." _That_ voice struck him to the soul; that one he'd never forget, or mistake.

"Maria," he called into the void. Was he dead? He couldn't remember how he'd gotten here, only the image of shattering glass. _No, I feel . . . _Miles away, it felt like, his hand slid along smooth metal, a slender bar somewhere far from where he seemed to be. "I can move," he said to the darkness, "I'm still alive . . ." He kicked, struggling against distant restraints that seemed wrapped around his legs - but how could he be kicking his feet while he was standing on them? He turned again, pivoting in the absolute darkness. Even the glow from his hovershoes was missing; even the glimmer inherent in the rings on his wrists and ankles.

"I need to go," that _was_ his own voice, echoing back words he'd never spoken, "to it . . ." _It? What's it? _He felt his mouth open and move with those questions, but heard no sound.

"Are you really Shadow!?" Doctor Eggman's voice rang through the darkness. "You can't be the military's top-secret weapon!" The scientist's Eggmobile whined invisibly past, like a giant mosquito, and back again, circling the battle outside his casino-themed park and urging his robots to attack. _No, wait, that wasn't the Doctor, but Metal Sonic in disguise . . . wasn't it?_

"Doctor . . . Must not repeat . . ." _Was_ it his voice? There were overtones of someone else; had the Shadow androids found him? ". . . the tragedy!"

_Tragedy? Which tragedy? _He'd known too many in his short waking life. He saw suddenly, as if a window had opened, a golden, robotic form marching steadily through the corridors of the ARK. _The Gizoid! _he recognized. It strode right past a black hedgehog with red stripes and hover shoes, forcing the Shadow-through-the-window to chase it back to the lab, before opening its chest plate to reveal the erratically pulsing gem within. _I remember that! That was when the Biolizard and the artificial Chaos went berserk; it was the__** reason**__ that GUN wanted to close the ARK down, they heard about them and were afraid_. Shadow watched from the darkness as his past self ran out of the room, watched himself racing through corridors attacking the blobby blue shapes of the artificial Chaos, then realized that something - the something that had always been there - was standing right beside him. He spun, and although the light vanished the instant he took his eyes off the 'window', he could still clearly see the blank golden face beside him. The blue eyes - the only feature other than the backswept, blunt horns - stared mockingly, and he **knew**, as if the Gizoid had shouted aloud, that this robot was the reason the Chaos energies had been unstable that day, and that it was no accident; the robot had deliberately engineered the crisis that had led directly to the GUN invasion and Maria's death. With a sudden surge of rage he lunged for the robot–

And found himself blinking in the light streaming through white blinds into a stark white room. His hands, which he had raised above him, dropped limply onto his chest, and he honestly could not recall ever feeling as weak as he did at the moment. Or as sore; he felt as if he'd been hiding in a punching bag that Knuckles and an entire army of echidnas had been practicing on. Drawing a careful breath, he looked around. He was firmly tucked into a metal-framed bed with guard rails on one side. The sheets and blanket were stark white, clearly the recipients of much washing and bleaching. A small table near the bed held a small black device with a button on it, and a lamp was attached to the wall above it. Fluorescent strip lighting was spaced among the ceiling tiles. After a bit of struggle, he managed to loosen the sheets enough so he could sit up. Immediately the room started to spin. He clapped his hands (gently!) to the sides of his head, to try and prevent it splitting in half, and tried to work out what had happened. Presumably, he was in a hospital, judging by the resemblance to the sickbay on the ARK. And the amount of pain he was in suggested he'd lost a fight. Who had he been fighting?

_Ow. Last thing I remember . . . I was catching Comet fragments. Did someone attack me while I was doing that? Or maybe I lost control of one and got hit? That last one was huge . . . ._ _No, wait._ He tried to ignore his headache and reconstruct that last deflection. _There was . . . another Chaos Emerald. Maybe more than one. And I was pulling power from it - or them - when . . . When what? When, when they . . . exploded? No, they were broken. Can you break a Chaos Emerald?_ He'd never heard of such a thing, but that seemed most consistent with the available impressions. He certainly remembered the backlash that had accompanied the mental impression of shattering. Well, he knew how to speed his own healing process. He reached for Chaos energy –and aborted the act instantly, as it felt like a steel rod was rammed through his head, from temple to temple.

Gasping and clutching his head in pain, he didn't hear the door open. It was only when the shadows of two humans fell across his lap that he realized that he had company. He looked up to see two people he didn't know - although he recognized what they were. The military bearing and uniformly dark, plain clothing spoke of a 'secret' government organization. He looked at the pair sourly, doing his best not to squint; he did _not_ need this right now.

Seeing that they had his attention, the female agent stepped forward. "Project: Shadow," she began in a brisk tone, "another of Professor Gerald Robotnik's ill-conceived weapons has surfaced, and you are hereby instructed to either capture or destroy it, before it goes berserk again and kills more people."

Shadow bristled instinctively at both the woman's tone and the implication that he was a servant to be ordered around. "If I am so ill-conceived, why are you telling me to stop this thing, rather than doing it yourself?" he asked, in a deceptively mild tone. "Besides, I'm busy fielding the meteorites from the Black Comet."

"Were you not ill-conceived, you would have destroyed the Comet properly in the first place," snapped the man. "And you'd know better than to answer back to your owners." The woman raised a hand sharply as if to stop him but it was too late.

"_Owners?_" hissed Shadow. His pains were momentarily forgotten as his temper flared at the insult. "Nobody owns me!" He clenched his fists, and remembered just in time not to summon a pulse of Chaos energy. _They can't do much in a hospital, and I don't need the extra pain right now._ He reined his anger in; anger could lend strength, but it dulled the wits, and he suspected he needed his about him now. "What is this weapon that's surfaced? I assume you don't mean the Eclipse Cannon."

The man started to speak but a glare from the woman cut him off. "One of Professor Gerald's robots has fallen into the hands of Doctor Eggman. The President gave the mission of recovering it to Rouge the Bat," she pronounced Rouge's name with distaste, "but we have learned that she intends to make off with it and use it in her thefts. Therefore, you must recover it and return it to its rightful owners."

"Meaning you, at GUN," suggested Shadow, trying to watch both agents carefully without being obvious about it.

"Meaning us, exactly," replied the woman, with a curt nod. But the scarlet eyes had noted the slight relaxation in both agents when he named GUN. Whoever they were, they weren't with that particular organization. The woman placed a small bag on the table by the bed. "You may find these useful in your mission. Use the phone to contact us when you've completed it." Then both humans turned to leave the room.

"Wait," said Shadow. Not that he wanted them to stay, but, "You haven't told me what robot; the Professor designed rather a lot of them, you know." A single robot in the Doctor's hands didn't seem particularly worrisome, since the man had created thousands himself. He'd inherited Gerald's blueprints for robots made or merely designed. And he'd had ample opportunity to examine the ones used by GUN and the artificial Chaos, which still could not be made to function in Earth's gravity. For a single robot to be a concern there had to be something more going on.

The man walked on out, but the woman glanced back. "The one called Gizoid," she said, and left.

Shadow sat motionless for a long time. _The Gizoid. __Not_ one of the Professor's inventions then; he'd found that robot, not built it. Odd that it should resurface now, right after his dream. Although, given that it and he both had a link to Chaos energy, maybe it wasn't so odd at that. _Huh. That's the one that Father was always afraid of. And with good reason, considering what happened with the Biolizard, and later when the Gizoid destroyed ARKauai. Hmm, I never did find out what happened to it after that._ Although, 'afraid of' was perhaps not the right phrase. 'Worried about' might be more appropriate. It wasn't the Gizoid itself that had scared the Professor, but what might become of it in the wrong hands._ And the President has sent Rouge to find it, and she wants to turn it into a thief? _Shadow frowned unseeingly at the far wall. Rouge hardly needed a robotic assistant, and he'd thought she took her job as an agent more seriously than to steal what she was tasked to deliver.

He riffled through his memories of the Gizoid as he reached for the bag on the table. _Father said that he found it in a government warehouse, and that it was designed to use Chaos Emeralds for energy. In fact, all his Chaos energy designs were based off of its circuitry. It has the ability to absorb weapons knowledge and fighting skills, but if it overdosed on such information, it could go out of control and be very destructive; he said it had destroyed the Fourth Great Civilization, the one of the Babylonians. That was why he kept it close most of the time, and didn't let it go near the weapons testing areas or watch me practice, he was afraid it might absorb too much, or that it would transfer its Link from him to someone with more 'power' but fewer ethics. And when he finally had to give it up, that's exactly what happened; they broke the Link by showing it stronger weapons, then fed it information until it destroyed everything, and nearly everyone, on ARKauai. _ He opened the bag and spilled the contents out onto his blanket. A small cell phone, with a single preset number, another communications receiver/earpiece with several small gadgets that appeared to be listening 'bugs', a pocket-sized disc-recorder and several discs. Most of them did carry the GUN emblem, he noted. He put the sole labeled disc into the player, and listened to Rouge talking about museums and stealing gems, and yes, teaching the robot to be a thief. He wondered how dense the humans were to actually believe all that, if they really did. He was quite certain she was aware she was bugged and talking nonsense. There was an odd gap in the midst of the recording that made him certain that she knew someone had been listening, and the final bit - where she dropped her voice to encourage close listening - warned him to cut the volume way_ down_ instead of up, before she crushed the bug, or whatever made the awful feedback squeal.

He stowed the assorted electronics back in the bag and decided he'd had enough of the hospital. He was still sore, but feeling much better than when he'd awakened - although he still wasn't ready to pull Chaos energy yet. Therefore he walked out of the hospital on his own two feet, not deliberately hiding, but simply avoiding attention. Once out, he flagged down a taxi and returned to his apartment. After the Black Arms had destroyed Westopolis, he had been assigned a new apartment in the undamaged part of Central City, at least until he had a chance to decide where he wanted to live. It was sparsely furnished, and the only personal touch was a framed photo beside the computer, depicting Shadow, Maria, and Professor Gerald Robotnik. He'd brought it back from the ARK after blasting the Black Comet. Shadow tossed the bag on the table, heated up a frozen dinner and went to bed. He'd track down the Gizoid in the morning. He had no intention of handing it over to whichever agency had contacted him; he merely intended to Link the robot to himself for the same reason that the Professor had: to keep anyone else from setting it off. What he'd do with it after that he hadn't decided, but he was certain that he didn't trust humans with it, and he hadn't had enough experience with dokan to know if they were trustworthy either. Therefore, the only one he could trust to not use the Gizoid's power was himself. But, quite frankly, he didn't have the energy to search it out at the moment. He closed his eyes and was asleep at once.

He dragged himself out of uncomfortable dreams to see that it was morning. Images of the Gizoid looming over the ARK faded rapidly in the morning light. He decided to check with Tails, the two-tailed fox that was Sonic's friend, both to see if the cub knew anything about the missing robot, and to ask him to check the equipment Shadow had been given. He wasn't certain that Tails would help him, but the cub had seemed to be the friendly, helpful sort. To his utter surprise, as he approached the fox cub's house he saw the Gizoid itself standing in the street. Immediately he charged at it, hoping it hadn't Linked with anyone yet.

"Shadow!"

"Huh?" Oops, he hadn't seen Sonic, knocking on Tails' door. "Sonic . . . sorry, but I don't have time to play with you now. Hey!" he called to the Gizoid. "Can you hear me? Respond!" The robot gazed blankly ahead. "No!" Shadow groaned, more to himself than the robot. "You must have already established a Link!"

The golden form continued to stand motionless. The bulbous eyes made it difficult to know just what it was looking at. "Shadow!" repeated Sonic, this time sounding more annoyed than surprised.

Shadow tried again. "Hey! You, over here!" He raised a hand and summoned a Chaos spear. Well, intended to summon a Chaos spear. The pain that lanced through his head killed that idea in a microsecond. Well, there was another way to show the Gizoid his 'power', and his body seemed recovered this morning, even if his Chaos powers weren't. "Won't listen to me, eh?" he challenged the robot. "In that case, I'll beat you with my bare hands!"

"Hey, stop that!" hollered Sonic, but Shadow ignored him. He'd finally gotten the Gizoid's attention, although it moved like it was feeling every one of its presumed four thousand years. He wondered if it would make it any easier to impress.

Except suddenly Sonic was in front of him, slamming Shadow to a halt by planting a hand on his chest. Shadow grunted at the impact. "Get out of the way, and give me that robot!" he growled at the blue hedgehog. He didn't particularly want to fight Sonic, although it was becoming evident that Sonic was probably the one who'd Linked with the Gizoid already. A display of force to Link the robot was one thing, but fighting Sonic without using his Chaos powers was something Shadow was not at all certain he could succeed at.

"And if I say no?" Sonic cocked an eyebrow at his black rival.

"Then," Shadow hesitated, but didn't see an option; explaining the Gizoid would take too long, and Sonic probably lacked the patience to listen, "I will beat you too."

It was a mistake, he quickly realized; his speed rivaled Sonic's, and the hover skates gave him an edge, but he'd never realized how much his fighting moves were enhanced by Chaos energy. Instinctive attempts to use the power _hurt_, and between the abrupt pain spikes and the resulting disruption of his attacks or dodges, he missed too many blows and received too many of Sonic's. Trying to _not_ draw on the Chaos energy was a distraction itself, and had a similar effect. Suddenly he realized that Sonic was aware of this; with increasing worry on his face, the blue hedgehog was pulling a lot of his punches, not knowing what was wrong with Shadow, but aware that something was. Caught between indignation and shame, Shadow skipped back. Sonic didn't follow, but watched him with concern.

Shadow snarled with frustration. _I still haven't regained my full power yet._ "Listen to me!" he called to Sonic, who'd opened his mouth to ask what was wrong. "Whatever you do, don't let Dr. Eggman get hold of the Gizoid. I'll be back," he stepped forward suddenly, palming one of the bugs he'd been given, "until then, take care of it." He slapped the Gizoid on the top of its head, lodging the bug behind one of the horns. Then he skated off in a hurry, fuming inwardly.

_I shouldn't have tried to do that; once I saw it was with Sonic, I should have changed plans. For that matter, I should have seen Sonic was there before I jumped at the Gizoid. Am I that rattled by a nightmare? I hope I'm not going to be without my Chaos powers too long, though - that could be very bad. Could I just tell Sonic about the Gizoid? _He shook his head at that. _I remember how he reacted to the whole Black Arms threat. Not to mention that idiot attempt to 'catch' a meteorite from the Comet. He'd either treat it all like a joke, or set out to prove the thing's harmless. Or both._ He pulled out the receiver for the bug and clicked it on.

"Sonic!" Tails' voice came from the speaker, a bit fuzzily. "Are you okay? I thought I saw Shadow . . . ." He sounded as if he were approaching, and his next statement came through clearly enough to make his puzzlement obvious, "And what is that? A robot?" Shadow smirked; the fox cub's tone was part disbelief that Sonic would have such a companion, and part professional disgust at the condition of the mech. _I have to admit, wherever it's been the last fifty years, cleaning hasn't been high on the priority list._

"Oh, I found this robot by the beach," Sonic sounded a bit distracted, although Shadow wasn't sure but what that was the blue's usual state. "This thing's about to fall apart. Can you fix it, Tails?"

There was a faint 'hmm' sound from the cub, and a few moment's silence. Then, "Where are you going, Sonic?"

"I spotted a bat that I'm a little too familiar with lurking around. Take this robot to the lab, Tails!"

"What? Sonic!" A faint crackling sound, apparently from the robot. Then a heavy sigh from the fox cub. "Man, he's _always _on the run. Oh, well. I've got a job to do here! Let's head to the lab. Can you walk?"

Shadow made it back to his apartment, half listening to the cub nattering on, to the accompaniment of various clanks and machine noises. He wondered what Rouge was really up to. _Pity I couldn't slap a bug on Sonic. Of course, she probably won't tell him the truth. I wonder if it would be useful to talk to her? _He sighed and sank down onto his couch. He might not _hurt_ physically, but he was far more tired than he ought to have been, considering that he'd fought so pathetically. _Guess I'll get some food and sort out my next move._


	5. Researching a Weapon

4. Researching a Weapon

As Rouge had expected, Sonic had turned the robot over to Tails. What she had not expected was Shadow turning up to try to take the Gizoid. She was briefly pleased to see him back on his feet, but she realized as soon as the fight began that he was far from recovered. Sonic was actually going easy on him. Shadow figured this out himself and retreated. Rouge had an unexpected urge to go check on him, but squashed it._ I don't need any information from him right now_, she told herself firmly. _Besides, male pride being what it is, he probably wouldn't appreciate learning that I saw that fiasco of a fight. It's Sonic I need to talk to. _She watched as Tails ran up, then she shifted position enough for Sonic to be able see her and shook a bush nearby. As the hedgehog looked up towards the motion, she slipped obviously back into hiding. Then she flitted back towards the beach, again making sure that the blue hedgehog saw both her exit and its direction. She found a comfortable rock and sat down to wait.

Sure enough, about thirty seconds later the blue hedgehog made his appearance, sliding to a halt in a cloud of sand. Squinting through the haze, he spotted Rouge and vaulted up onto the rock next to her.

"Hey!" she greeted him.

He seemed less than pleased to see her, even though he'd followed her here. "What do _you_ want?"

Rouge raised her brows at his rudeness. "Is that how you greet a beautiful woman?" she mock-pouted.

"I don't have time for niceties,"Sonic replied. "'Sides, I have enough girls chasing me around as it is."

"Heh," Rouge smirked, mentally wondering who was after him. Amy Rose was a given, but Cream seemed too young to be interested, and Knuckles and Tails were both male. _Maybe some groupies or something, given how many times he's saved the world; I'll have to look into that later. _New ways to fluster males were always welcome. But right now: "The only girl I saw following you was a girl robot. Where is she, anyway?"

"What girl robot?" To her amusement, Sonic sounded almost panicked. Then realization dawned. "You don't mean _that_ robot."

"How about a little wager?" Rouge folded her arms just below her breasts and leaned forward, ensuring that the blue hedgehog got an eyeful. "If we wrestle and I win, you have to partner up with me." She leaned slightly on the word 'partner', just enough to imply another meaning, but not so much she couldn't deny having meant more that 'team up'.

Sonic looked - he was a teenage guy, after all - and gulped. "If this is your plan to get a date," he fumbled, "you'll still have to wait in line!" He didn't sound nearly so sure of himself now, though.

Rouge smirked to herself, but outwardly put on an concerned look. "Well, there's quite a line," she acknowledged. "Shadow, Dr. Eggman, and even my boss are interested in your little robot . . . ." She shook her head worriedly as she let her voice trail off. Then leaned seductively sideways. "And I hate waiting in lines, you know," she purred.

Sonic blinked, and opened his mouth once or twice. He seemed to be having difficulty focusing on what he wanted to say. "I saw Shadow earlier," he finally managed. "He said something about Eggman too. But, wait," suddenly his gaze snapped back up to meet Rouge's eyes. "Why's a master thief interested in . . . ?"

Rouge flicked a hand casually. "The robot's a special case." _I wonder why he decided I was looking for it for myself, rather than for the government. He knows I'm an agent._ "And it's already established a Link with you. This isn't an ordinary robot, you know. So, about my little wager," she slid off the rock and took up a fighting stance, "if I win, you have to team up with me, OK?"

"Don't you think it's a little too early to be getting romantic?" Sonic didn't know what was going on, but he was clearly suspicious that something was. But he crouched slightly opposite her, matching her pose. "And if I win, you'll leave me alone, right?"

Rouge didn't answer, lunging forward instead. She caught a wrist with each hand and hooked an ankle to try and sweep Sonic's feet out from under him. But the hedgehog was faster than she was, and twisted away, wrenching one hand free and trying to slam an elbow back towards her abdomen. Rouge jumped into the air, pulling him up with her by his other wrist, then letting go as he tried to pivot his body up to kick at her. He landed on his head.

_Good thing that's the hardest part of him._ She hovered above as he staggered to his feet, shaking his head slightly. "Better watch yourself," she warned. "Don't ever underestimate an agent. You might get hurt."

Sonic growled and tried a homing attack, leaping into the air and becoming a spinning projectile targeting by Chaos energy. Rouge dodged the first two attacks, but the third time he got through her guard and knocked her to the ground. "Don't underestimate _me_," he snapped back at her. She lay still, following his movements with her hearing as she had her face turned away from him. "Rouge?" He was wary, not trusting her stillness. _Unusually perceptive of him_, she thought, _but it won't help_. He took a step closer, then a second. "Rouge? Are you all right?" She didn't move, trying to minimize even her breathing. Her mind was moving rapidly though, sorting through options. Reaching a decision, she let the hedgehog move a few steps closer, then rolled over and swept one leg around in a large arc. The look of shock on his face was priceless as he went down with a thud, both legs knocked out from under him. Rouge continued her roll, coming up on her knees and leaping from them into the air. "You'll need to do a bit better than that," she told him. "Sorry, but I need to go. Once you get that robot back, you can introduce us properly, and we'll call it even. Ta ta."

She flew off in a random direction, turning once she was out of sight to head for Tails' lab. Sonic got there slightly ahead of her, and he and Tails took off with the robot in Tails' plane, the Tornado. Rouge followed them far enough to ascertain that they were going to Angel Island, then returned to grab lunch and wait for them to return to the lab. There was nothing on Angel Island but chao and Knuckles the Echidna, except of course for the largest and most powerful gem on the planet. But attempting to steal it would be counterproductive right now, and she knew she'd never be able to look at the gem without at least attempting the theft. So, regretfully, she opted for discretion and refrained from following. They'd have to bring the plane back, at least, and she couldn't see Knuckles tolerating the robot being left on his island. She pulled out the notebook she'd retrieved from Gerald's quarters on the ARK, and started trying to decipher the erratically faded script.

The first few entries merely increased her irritation at the task, but then she hit one that made her forget her dislike of reading and the difficulty of making out the faded sections and Gerald's none-to-neat handwriting. She was unaware that her jaw had dropped as she traced a finger across the page.

_Today - although I hardly dare to write this, I must record it somewhere, and I CANNOT put it in the official journal - today, I made contact with a creature from another world. No, to be strictly accurate, I was contacted by a creature from another world. A hologram or illusion of a cyclopian creature resembling a giant, hovering starfish appeared while I was in Maria's observation room. She's still in sickbay but Ivan had ordered me out to get rest - as if I could rest when it's my fault she's so ill! But this creature claims (actually, I wonder how it knows English, I'll have to ask if it does in fact appear again) it claims that the Black Comet is actually an inhabited vessel and that shuttle blew up because it came within range of automatic asteroid defenses. The aliens supposedly did not realize that the shuttle was a craft in time to shut the defenses down. I am not sure I believe this. However, the creature offers reparation of a sort by teaching me knowledge to heal and extend life. I do not know if I can trust this being, but with Maria's life at stake . . . how can I not? I must proceed with great caution. Even more so since I have gotten word that HQ is going to shut the colony down. This cannot happen now, when I may have found information I need! Although I don't know if techniques that heal aliens or grant them extended life will work on humans _. . . The journal went on, erratically dated, but it filled in a good many of the holes that Rouge had noted in the official, computerized diary, and detailed Professor Gerald's dealings with Doom's Eye and Black Doom himself. Unfortunately those parts were intermixed with Maria, anguish over the governmental and military orders, Maria, routine problems at the lab, Maria, and Maria.

Several hours after Sonic and Tails had left, her sharp ears heard the Tornado returning. Rouge shook herself and put the journal away, with mixed relief and disappointment. Gerald had an almost 'stream of consciousness' style of writing, interjecting comments and thoughts into the narrative as he had them, and he'd also annotated some of the entries at a later date, which meant the reading was slowed even further. But he was clearly approaching Shadow's actual creation; that last entry had described in detail why he had selected a dokan hedgehog as the base creature for his second attempt in Project: Shadow. She watched as the plane landed, and Sonic, Tails and the Gizoid climbed out. The robot seemed was moving much more easily now, although it still didn't look like much of a weapon. _At least it doesn't look ready to topple over or collapse anymore. Hmm, I wonder if that's an effect from the Master Emerald, or if Knuckles actually had a Chaos Emerald to give them. Well, I doubt he __**gave**__ it to them; knowing Knuckles and Sonic they probably fought over it, with Tails trying to talk sense to them in the background._

Sonic zoomed off somewhere, but Tails headed off towards downtown Central City with the robot in tow. Rouge followed along behind, staying out of easy view but not really worried about keeping hidden; neither the fox cub nor the robot looked back. Curiously, Tails took the robot to Central City lab, where she'd been a few days earlier looking for information on it. Making certain her shadow didn't pass over them, she landed on a decorative ledge on the third floor of the building. She smirked as she listened to the two-tailed cub trying to convince the guard robot that he needed to get into the building. _For such a genius, Tails, you sure can be dumb. You can't talk a robot around; they're only programed for two options: pass, entry allowed; and no pass, entry forbidden._ This would work out very well for her, though. Finally the human guard stepped out and ordered the pair to begone and stop blocking the door. Tails gave it up, and she waited while he trudged to the end of the block, the robot trailing behind. _Poor baby, he looks so dejected, with his tails dragging like that_, she thought with amusement. She left her perch and rapidly caught up with them, flying slightly ahead to a bus stop and dropping onto a vacant bench.

As she'd expected, he didn't even notice. "What should we do, Emerl?" he asked hopelessly as he passed.

Rouge waited until they had almost passed her. "What's the matter, kids? You lost your mama?"

The little orange fox started, and looked up. Recognizing her, he stepped back, subconsciously curling his tails up in front of him as if they were shields. "R, Rouge?" he stammered. He took another step back and grabbed the robot's wrist, tugging it after him. "Let's go, Emerl!" He turned and had to stop short because the bat had lofted over their heads and blocked his intended escape route.

"So, its name is Emerl?" mused Rouge. This was the closest she'd been to the robot. Tails had certainly cleaned it up well, but it still didn't look particularly impressive.

Tails glanced around in desperation, then squared his little shoulders. Balling his fists he stared up at Rouge; the top of his head just about reached her chin. Tails flicking behind him, he demanded, "What's it to you?"

The pale-furred bat nearly burst out laughing at the cub's 'tough' act. But in this case, irritating him would be counterproductive. He was too young for her usual bag of tricks, but she knew a few ways to get information from the younger set as well. "You want to go into the Central Lab, right?"

Tails gaped at her. "What? How did you know that?"

_Because you just told me. _Rouge sighed. "It's written all over your face," she told him. "I'll let you in the Central Lab if you come with me. I'm an agent for the President, you know." A double hook there; offer the prize they want, and invoke a trusted authority figure.

Tails wasn't quite that gullible, though. "But you're always so mean to us!" he objected, eyeing her suspiciously. Then a spark of vulpine mischief flared. "And I'm not supposed to talk to strangers!" he declared triumphantly. And loudly enough that passersby turned to look.

Rouge mentally awarded the cub a point. He'd neatly prevented her from hustling him off somewhere - if that had been her intention. Unfortunately for him, she had something else in mind. She shrugged and stepped past him, back towards the bench, forcing him to turn to keep her in sight. "OK, then . . ." She sat down, leaning back and not quite looking at him. "What if we just played a little game?" She said it almost as if talking to herself. The various humans on the street, except for one motherly looking woman, were already turning back to their assorted business. The only other dokan in sight was an elderly dog, who was also flicking his gaze between the bat and the fox.

"Game?" questioned Tails, not moving from his spot.

Rouge studied the tips of her fingers, noting several smudges on her gloves. _Central Labs needs to wash their building more often. _Out of the corner of her eye she saw the motherly woman and the black-eared dog lose interest and move off down the street. "Oh, just a little fight." She saw the cub skip back again, tails returning to defensive position. "Not you, sweetie, me versus this gallant robot of yours."

Tails looked wary and doubtful at the same time. "It's not mine," he objected, "it's Sonic's, and he told me to take care of it."

"All right then, you and the robot both against me. If you can score ten hits first, you win. And for winning," she flipped the lab pass out from where she'd tucked it in her bustier, noting how the cub's eyes widened, "I'll lend you my lab pass. With this, you can enter the Central Lab any time you want! What do you say? It shouldn't be any problem for you to win my lab pass, right?"

Tails was no fool, and he clearly didn't trust her at all. But that lab pass . . . oh, he wanted it all right. Rouge flicked it idly back and forth a few times, watching as his eyes followed the motion. "Well . . ." he said slowly, "I suppose . . ." Then his eyes narrowed, as he recovered himself. "Why do you want to help us out, anyway?"

"You two precious little boys seemed too lost," improvised the bat.

Tails scowled. "I don't trust you." But his eyes followed the pass as she waved it again, like a cobra swaying to the charmer's flute.

"Whether you do or you don't, are you ready? Shall we begin?" Rouge stood up from the bench, sliding the pass back into its hiding place, and stretched. Again, there was just the merest glimmer of interest from the cub, although Sonic - or the human guard at the lab - would be picking his eyes and jaw off the sidewalk. _A little boy indeed!_

The three moved off the sidewalk into a scrubby area that was stuck somewhere between 'overgrown vacant lot' and 'unkempt park'. The robot followed Tails, and simply stood there when the fox stopped. Tails looked back and forth uncertainly between the bat and the mech. _Looks like it's up to me to get this ball rolling_, sighed Rouge. She sashayed up to the robot, studied it a moment, then flung a roundhouse kick at its head.

Without seeming to hurry, the robot interposed an arm, blocking the kick. Rouge dropped her leg and jumped back into a defensive posture, and the robot lowered its arm . . . and continued to stand there. Tails was still watching carefully. Rouge ignored him, since the robot was her real interest, and stepped forward and repeated the kick. Again she was blocked and retreated, and again the robot just stood there.

"Do it once more," said Tails, unexpectedly. The bat glanced over at him, eyed the robot and repeated her two-part maneuver. This time, when she fell back the robot jumped forward and swung her own kick at _her_ head. Rouge barely blocked it, - _that's going to leave a mark! _- and it dropped back to match her stance. Tails nodded. "Yep, I thought it was three times to capture a move. Come on, Emerl!" With a twirl of his namesake appendages, he flew forward into battle. Rouge shook her head, she'd fallen right into that one. She tried the kick on the fox, but he dodged aside and whacked her other ankle with his tails, forcing her to take wing or fall down. "One," he called as he flew up to join her, leaving Emerl to wave his arms and try to follow. Tails ignored the robot and came at the bat with an array of punches and a stun gun, but the bat was more interested in what the robot could do, so after avoiding Tails' attacks she dropped back to the ground. The kit followed her down and tried another tail attack. Rouge had to concede that the fox cub had definite potential as a fighter, but he was young, and lacked both the intensive training of his older friends and the height and muscle to back up his attacks. Although the challenge had been simply to tag her, with no stipulation as to force required. Still, by himself he'd have been no problem for Rouge to avoid, but the robot's peculiar array of attacks (a spin dash, one of Sonic's high kicks, her own roundhouse and defensive stance) and abrupt additions mid-fray - particularly a tail-lash it must have copied from Tails, which was very distracting because the robot had no tails and she couldn't make out what it was actually hitting her with - proved too much for her. Between them they landed the specified ten touches, and the bat yielded. She'd intended to give Tails the pass anyway, but had expected a bit more control over how she gave it to him. But she was used to opponents having a fighting style and sticking to it, not switching erratically between three completely different ones, especially with such a limited and illogical set of moves. She had, however, spotted a metal bug tucked under one of the robot's horns, and thought she recognized the make.

So, she waved the fox cub to a halt. As soon as he stopped, the robot returned to doorstop mode. "Not bad! Here's the lab pass as I promised. Now you can enter the Cental Lab without any difficulty." She handed the pass over. She didn't see any reason to mention that she'd already made a copy of it, so that she could still get in any time she wanted.

Tails stared at the pass in his hand. "Th-thanks . . ." he managed. She could tell he was still trying to spot the trap, not realizing it had already closed around him.

"Thanks! Thanks!" announced the Gizoid, startling her. She hadn't realized it could talk; the fractured noises it had made when Sonic found it hardly counted as speech. But part of what made her so good at her job - both of them - was that she never stayed surprised long.

"Oh, what a good little boy!" she gushed at it. "Won't you tell me your name?" Instantly the robot went silent, with just the faintest crackling hum from its speaker. Rouge shook her head, rubbing her forearm where she'd blocked the robot's first kick; there was definitely a bruise forming beneath the white glove. "It really doesn't listen to anybody but its Master," she said. "OK, I'll see you later! Bye!" She took to the air and flitted away to a convenient, shaded fire escape. Once there she pulled out her government-issued receiver and fiddled with the bandwidth. Sure enough, the bug was broadcasting on a standard military frequency, with a standard government encryption. She settled down as comfortably as she could manage, and listened.


	6. A Weapon's Responsibility

**A.N.: **To fend off objections before they start, _Professor Gerald _(in _Descent into Darkness_) believed that the Gizoid was Babylonian and that the 'stones of the gods' mentioned on the tablet were the Time Stones, so that's what Shadow was taught. I know Sonic Chronicles gives a bit more info on the Gizoids and changes that, but Shadow hasn't gotten there yet. ; )

5. A Weapon's Responsibility

Shadow was sprawled across his bed, staring at the receiver and listening to Rouge's little game with Tails. He mind was far more active than his body, pondering what Rouge was up to, the ramifications of the Gizoid's reappearance, the relationship between it and himself ('another of Professor Gerald's weapons' the agent had said, relegating the black hedgehog back to a category he'd thought he'd escaped from), and what on earth he was supposed to do about it. Or whether he _should_ do anything about it.

"Last one first I think," he said to the empty apartment. He imagined that Maria was there, sitting on the floor with her chin in her hands and listening as he thought aloud. "I'm Gerald's heir, the only one other than the Doctor and _he's_ part of the problem. Therefore, it is my responsibility to do something, because: one, the Gizoid has the potential to destroy civilization, which could be a problem for me, since I'm used to living in civilization; two, Doctor Eggman is fiddling with things he doesn't entirely understand, as usual, and Sonic seems more interested in helping him then stopping him. Although," he added, "to be fair, I don't think Sonic realizes that he's being used, but clearly Eggman set him up to find the Gizoid and get it repaired by Tails and trained by Sonic, Knuckles and anyone else they can set up challenges with. And perhaps give it several Chaos Emeralds to increase its power, so the Doctor can retrieve it later, charged up and ready to literally take on the world." That part had already happened; he'd eavesdropped on Tails feeding it the first Chaos Emerald and finding that it actually powered the robot, and then to Tails and Sonic 'convincing' Knuckles to hand over a second, which had turned up on Angel Island after the fight with Devil Doom. He paused to remember where he'd left off counting. "Three, I promised that I'd protect the people of this planet. Four, I _was_ created as an intelligent weapon, so that I could choose which battles were right, and I think this one is. Regardless of who thinks they're ordering me into it." It irked him that these people would think he was following their orders, but he wasn't going to let the Gizoid destroy civilization just because his ego would unhappy if he stopped it.

He wondered if he should report the mysterious agents to Mokie, but decided against it. He didn't have enough information, yet. "So, next question. Having decided that the Gizoid is my responsibility, what am I supposed to do about it? Destroy it? _Father _couldn't figure out how to do that. Stop it? I can try again to Link it to me after I recover a bit more strength, but that's a temporary measure. The Doctor's fleet, or that battle station Rouge said he used to have, could certainly re-transfer a Link to the Doctor." He frowned, thinking hard, then his attention was yanked back to the receiver.

"Thanks! Thanks!" Shadow sat up in surprise. A chill ran down his spine. _A voice from the past, indeed._ He listened as Rouge gave Tails and the Gizoid the lab pass, and left.

"What's a 'master'? You don't know, Emerl?" the cub was asking the robot. "Hmm . . . it's difficult to determine how much you understand when I'm talking. Let's go back to the Central Lab now that we have the lab pass. I should know more about you after an inspection!" He seemed excited by the idea. Shadow wondered if the cub would still be so excited once he knew what the ancient being really was.

"Let's go! Let's go!" The Gizoid again. It had rarely spoken on the ARK, occasionally mimicking other's phrases, as it was doing now, but more often reporting conversations if the Professor asked it to. Shadow thought that Professor Gerald might have asked it not to repeat randomly, but wasn't certain; it hadn't occurred to him to ask, fifty years ago.

"You again? How many times do I have to–" Shadow didn't recognize that masculine voice, which might have been human or dokan.

"I- I have this . . ." said Tails nervously. There was a shocked pause.

"Y- you're a friend of Ms. Rouge? I'm terribly sorry for the inconvenience, sir! Please come in!" The distant eavesdropper smirked; it sounded like Rouge had had her usual effect.

"All right!" the cub practically cheered. "Let's go, Emerl!"

Let's go! Let's go!" chorused the Gizoid as they presumably walked into the labs. _It sounds a lot more juvenile than it used to_, thought Shadow, _I wonder if that's from being shut down so long, or if it assimilates non-fighting behavior patterns as well as martial ones_.

There was a long space of movement-type noises - footsteps, doors opening and closing, elevators - before Tails said anything else. "Ok," he said finally, "it's time to find out everything about you Emerl! Let's examine your structural data."

There was an odd sound that might have been the robot signaling confusion. Or shorting out, but Shadow doubted he'd be that lucky.

"You structural data will tell us who your creator was, what you were created for, and so on," Tails explained. "Since I already know you were created by Eggman, I need to be on my guard." Shadow snorted. _You __**know **__it was created by Eggman?_

"Guard! Guard!" crowed Emerl. _Hmmph. I think that robot's copied all of Sonic's enthusiasm but none of his sense. And the faker has little enough of that to start with._

"No, no," the cub was assuring his companion, "you don't have to be on guard! I'm just gonna plug this thing right in here . . . ." Something clicked sharply. "Scanning Emerl's structure," the cub muttered; Shadow guessed he was entering commands into the lab's computer. There were several minutes of silence before Tails spoke again. "What? What's wrong here? The lab computer should be able to scan even Eggman's machines . . . Hmm," he sounded genuinely perplexed, but Shadow caught an undercurrent of excitement. He'd heard a similar tone in the past when Professor Gerald's experiments didn't cooperate, and felt that excitement himself when an enemy or rival offered unexpected challenge. "Time to get serious," the fox cub decided. "Let me go through a security hole this time and," there were faint, tantalizing noises from the receiver and Shadow wished he had a video feed, "bypass Emerl's basic security protocols to get an idea of Emerl's basic structure."

Fortunately the cub continued to talk to himself - or maybe to the robot, for whatever reason. "Warning, highly confidential? That seems weird for an Eggman robot. 'Unknown item identified'," the cub was apparently reading off the computer screen, "'weapon found in ancient ruins and identified as 'Gizoid'?' What's this? What do you have to do with ancient ruins?"

The robot made no answer, and after a moment Tails continued. "'Technology to acquire all forms of weaponry is based on super-science technology - no apparent limitations and will continue to loop indefinitely.' You acquire . . . it can't be . . . . 'However, in repeated experiments, the continual data caused an overload' –oh dear." Shadow smiled grimly, hearing in the fox cub's voice that he was realizing exactly what sort of time bomb he'd been handed, although if the computer had mentioned the robot's ability to imitate fighting moves the cub hadn't read it out loud. Tails was scared, which was good, but he probably wasn't nearly as scared as he ought to be, yet. There was more, and Shadow listened to the cub's intermittent reading, about the Chaos Emeralds to power the machine and the destruction of the Fourth Great Civilization. "Gerald," Tails mused, sounding nervous, "that's Eggman's grandfather . . . and this 'mysterious' disappearance . . . that means . . . Emerl, you–" There was a faint buzzing from the robot, then suddenly an alarm began whooping. Shadow sat up sharply, then leaned closer to the receiver. He could just make out a robotic voice - not Emerl's - and Tails' arguing. Something about accessing restricted data.

Shadow rolled off the bed and reached for his hover shoes. _I may not be able to stop Sonic from pursuing this idiotic course, but I can try to scare Tails enough that maybe we'll all survive it._

He raced the few blocks to the lab and intercepted the pair as they scurried out of the building, leaving guard robots milling in the lobby. "Shadow!" exclaimed Tails, skidding to a halt, "What are you doing here?" He looked truly alarmed, with his blue eyes wide and his fur standing up along his spine. Even his tails were bushed out.

Shadow eyed the cub, deliberately putting on his chilliest expression. "Looks like you discovered what Emerl really is," he said.

Tails' eyes went wider if possible, his ears drooping nervously. "Y-yeah," he admitted.

"Then why don't you destroy it now? You must destroy it before it collects all the Chaos Emeralds and uses its true power!" Shadow was perfectly aware that Professor Gerald had tried - and failed - to destroy the Gizoid. Neither the robot itself nor its main power core had been susceptible to any weapon or tool he'd had access to, which was why the scientist had tried to reprogram the robot to make it harmless and unable to be used as a weapon of war. Shadow had been skeptical of the idea fifty years ago and was more so now, after the Gizoid's going berserk and Gerald's failed attempt at programming Shadow himself to destroy the Earth upon awakening. But he figured that if anyone on the planet could destroy the Gizoid, it would be Tails, so he suggested the option, even though he doubted the cub would agree to it.

He was right. The cub's expression shifted from fear to puzzled surprise. "Shadow?"

"There's no need to repeat past tragedies! Nobody else ever needs to go through the things that I have!" Suddenly he remembered his recent dream, the Gizoid knowingly causing the destruction of ARKauai that resulted in the attack on the ARK, putting it directly responsible for Maria's death. Shadow glowered at the blank golden face with its expressionless blue eyes. "Out of the way!" he growled. "I'll finish it now!" He couldn't destroy the Gizoid, but he could vent some of his frustration on it, and just maybe, showing Tails what sort of damage the robot could do would encourage him to try to deactivate it himself, permanently.

"Shadow!" Tails squared himself up, for all that he was a head shorter than the Ultimate Life-form, and planted himself between the red-striped hedgehog and the Gizoid. "I respect you, but," he gulped, slightly diminishing the effect of his bravado," Emerl's our friend! If you attack one of us then I'll do whatever it takes to protect him!"

Shadow paused a moment, startled that the cub thought he might attack _him_ - he'd thought it was clear that he was only challenging the robot. Then he lost his temper. "How can it be your 'friend'?" he snapped. "Sonic only dumped it on you this morning! And it wasn't created to have friends; it was created to kill everything in sight when its masters ordered it to do so!"

"That doesn't matter!" Tails snapped right back at him. "Omega was created to destroy _you_, and that doesn't seem to have stopped you from making friends with him! And you still seem to be in one piece! And I've created lots of mechs that ended up getting different uses than what I'd intended - programming can always be changed!"

("Change! Change!" cheered Emerl, in the background)

"Not for this one," Shadow countered. "Do you really think that you can succeed where Professor Gerald - one of the greatest minds of all time - failed completely? He _tried_ to reprogram the robot, and then he tried to destroy it - and it destroyed ARK island and killed four people! The Gizoid is not safe, and it's not one of your little toy machines you can play with and then lay aside to build something else!" ("Toy! Toy!") Shadow reined himself in and turned away. "Hmph. Looks like you'll never understand. The builders will never know how their creations truly feel." He suppressed a shudder at the memory of how Professor Gerald had tried to program _him_, and nearly succeeded in his posthumous revenge. If it hadn't been for his promise to Maria . . . . It had taken a lot of thought for Shadow to forgive Gerald that abuse of his 'son's' independence and free will. He was about to stalk away from the idiot cub and leave the world to its fate, when something slammed into the small of his back.

"**Toys?! **They **aren't** toys!" Shadow twisted as he pitched forward, taken completely off guard by the cub's attack. He managed to land on his back rather than his face, and got one knee up to shove the kit off him. Tails had his ears flat back and his teeth bared, and looked ready to eat the black hedgehog alive. Shadow teleported away without thinking.

_I didn't know Tails could __**get**__ that mad!_ He didn't have time to figure out what he'd said wrong, because the Gizoid chose that moment to spindash into the fray, knocking Shadow over again. He set thinking aside and focused on fighting.

Shadow quickly discovered that the Gizoid's apparently random collection of attacks made it a very difficult opponent. The robot initially used several attacks and kicks identical to Rouge's, but when Shadow blocked them and responded with a strike he knew the bat couldn't block, the robot leaped away with Sonic's speed, then twirled back in to attack him with its tails._ Wait, __**tails**__? The Gizoid doesn't __**have**__ tails! _But attempting to see what he'd just been attacked with gave Tails an opportunity to attack. The fox cub did have tails, and they were as effective as whatever the Gizoid was using in their place, but he lacked the heft and experience to be much of a challenge to the Ultimate Life-form, even in his weakened state. Shadow used a weak Chaos bubble to knock the cub back and restrain him temporarily. He'd been using his Chaos powers normally, not because he'd forgotten the pain from earlier, but because it had seemed to have gone, but now his head throbbed warningly. He was matching the Gizoid's spin dash with one of his own, and the minor draw of power he used for targeting simply failed. The robot's blow knocked him out of control and into the side of the building. Panting, the dark hedgehog jumped back to his feet, just in time for Tails to toss a small metal box on a wire at him. Confused, Shadow looked at it - just long enough for a boxing glove to erupt out of the box and catch him on the chin. His head collided a second time with the wall. Annoyed, his return spin dash was a bit harder than he'd intended, carrying him and the cub both out into the street. Horn blaring, an enormous truck roared down on them. Tails instinctively tried to duck, but Shadow grabbed him and teleported them both back to the sidewalk. He ended up on his knees, as the energy he'd thought he'd recovered threw up its hands and abandoned him. The Gizoid oblivious to what had almost happened, flapped its arms like wings and flew into the air, crowing "Let's play! Let's play!"

Gasping for air, Shadow met Tails' eyes and panted, "Your partner's not too bad . . ."

"What?" Tails rubbed an ear with one hand, panting as hard as Shadow.

"All right," a female voice rang out above the traffic noise. "All right now, STOP!"

"Rouge!" gasped the dark hedgehog. The bat didn't seem to hear as she strode forward, glaring equally at the Gizoid and Tails. She raised a receiver that looked very much like the one Shadow'd been given. "Guard robos are on their way. Unless you both want to get caught, I suggest–" She broke off abruptly as she caught sight of the third combatant, trying unsuccessfully to stand up. "Shadow, what do you think you're doing? You know you aren't well enough yet!" She stepped over and grabbed his arm, hauling him briskly to his feet and keeping him there. For all her outward femininity, the bat was every bit as strong as the male dokan.

Shadow tried to push her away. "I didn't push myself much," he muttered.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," scoffed the bat. She let him go and his knees nearly buckled, but he did catch himself before he fell. "You're built pretty tough. Now let's go! We don't have much time to waste!" She took him by the arm again and started to march him away.

"Rouge," said the fox cub in bewilderment, although he was already starting to hustle the Gizoid ("Tough! Tough!") in the opposite direction.

The bat looked back and winked at Tails. "Later!" She waved her free hand casually and escorted Shadow away.

The hedgehog allowed himself to be escorted; he could hear the whine of the approaching robots and was fully aware that he was in no shape to take them on. He hated it, but was intelligent enough to accept it. Besides, he wanted to talk to Rouge anyway. He stumbled beside her for several blocks, before she turned and shoved him down on a park bench. "Well? Just what did you think you were _doing_, fighting those two when you haven't recovered from your collapse yet?"

He blinked at her in mingled irritation and confusion. Confusion won, and his first question was, "Why are you so angry?"

It was the bat's turn to blink, and momentarily she looked almost as confused as he felt. "Because . . . because," she spluttered, then finished triumphantly, "because capturing the Gizoid is my mission from the President, and you're interfering with it!" She looked almost relieved, for some reason. Then she gave him a look so pointed she could have punctured a tire with it, and added, "Don't you dare tell me you're fine; you should have been able to take that fox boy down in three seconds without taking a deep breath, and he had you staggering."

Shadow looked away, embarrassed. "Yes, well, the Gizoid is another thing entirely. It has no fighting style of its own and is completely unpredictable, as well as a lot more powerful than Miles Prower." He looked back at the bat grimly. "Do you know what that thing is? Are you certain that giving it to the government is a good idea? I doubt anyone can really understand its real power except me and perhaps Sonic."

Rouge snorted. "Sonic? He's all fired up to turn this thing into some sort of pal, I think. He's got no clue as to what it can do–"

"That's not what I mean," Shadow interrupted her, shaking his head. "I know he doesn't understand the consequences - I'm not sure he can really comprehend that people seriously might want to destroy the world, his skirmishes with Doctor Eggman are just games to him. But that robot is designed to utilize the full power of the Time Stones, which are equivalent to the Chaos Emeralds - and only someone else who's used those powers can really know what that means. Knuckles and Tails might have a glimmer, since they did something with Super Sonic during the Metal Overlord crisis, but I'm not sure they got the full effect. You _saw_ what I can do as Super Shadow, facing Devil Doom and teleporting the Black Comet into space, but you don't _know_ the power because you never felt it." He frowned, not sure he'd gotten his point across. He knew exactly what he meant, but the words didn't seem to have enough force.

"I'm not sure that giving it to the government is the best of all possible choices, no," answered Rouge, " but I do think it's a better idea than letting Eggman take it back. I suspect the best thing to do would be to destroy it, but I know that Gerald Robotnik couldn't manage that, so I'm not sure what's next."

"How do you know the Professor . . . ? Oh, you heard me tell Tails."

"Uh, no. When I was given the mission, I tried to talk to you, but you were still unconscious, so I went up to the ARK, and read Gerald's online diary. I also -well, I learned a few things I didn't know, but nothing really helpful in stopping it. Although he said something about trying to reprogram it to feel emotions."

Shadow eyed the bat thoughtfully. He was pretty sure she'd changed what she'd started to say, and he wondered what she was hiding. "He hoped that if the Gizoid could feel friendship and pain, then it would refuse to do anything that might harm its friends. There was supposed to be a code to reset it, and defuse its martial programming entirely. But it's extremely risky."

"And that's why he didn't do it? I'd have thought an idealist like Gerald would have jumped at the chance to make this thing safe, no matter what the risk."

"I'm not entirely certain; the reprogramming was done after I was already in stasis." The dark hedgehog paused, recalling painful memories of the one, brief awakening between the tragedy on the ARK and Eggman's freeing him on Prison Island. "I only know about it from his journal files and some of the other information you gave me. He couldn't do it while under GUN observation, and I think it may require the Gizoid to be fully awake, whereas the Professor never had more than a single Chaos Emerald. That's why the plan is so risky - you have to give the robot the ability to unleash all its power, and risk it going berserk, in order to defuse it. I don't know what happened to the Gizoid after that, though, how it got off Prison Island or how it ended up in Eggman's hands."

Rouge walked a few steps away, then back, pacing as she considered what he'd told her. "So in other words, we have to let Eggman get away with this plan for Sonic and Tails to educate and power up this robot, and then try to get in and defuse it before he can take it back."

"What? And not train it to be a robot thief?" Shadow asked, as deadpan as only he could manage.

The bat stared at him in shock. "Where did you hear that?" He offered her the disk recorder, and she played enough of the disk to recognize the recording with a wry grimace.

"I'm not sure who gave it to me, but they were some sort of government agents, probably ex-military," he explained. "They want me to catch the Gizoid for _them_, rather than the President. And they don't seem to trust you, for some reason," he added mildly.

Rouge made a rude noise, inspecting the gadget carefully. "GUN emblem, but that doesn't prove anything, of course. A lot of the governmental and military aides don't trust me. I try to keep it that way, as long as the top officials do trust me. Hmm." She told him about the 'janitor' that had planted the bug on her, that had been the source of the recording. "Let me know if you hear any more from them, will you? I prefer to know who my enemies are. Can you get home by yourself?"

Shadow stood up cautiously. He was feeling a lot better after the brief rest; in fact he was feeling normal, which worried him a bit. _It's hard to judge how far to push it if I don't get weak until after I've gone too far. But I should certainly be able to get home from here. _He assured the bat of this, and bid her farewell. "But do let me know if you pick up any more pertinent information on the Gizoid, please, or this mysterious agency. I don't know who these people are, but they're trying to use me and I object to being used." Rouge cheerfully assured him of nothing, and he returned to his apartment - and the receiver for the bug that was still planted on his robotic target.


	7. Creation of a Weapon

6. Creation of a Weapon

Rouge waited for Shadow to turn the corner, then took to the air and followed him for a few blocks. He made one slight detour for a line of golden rings on the opposite side of the street, but seemed to be walking well enough. The rings should boost his energy a bit, as well. She wondered if she should have told him about Gerald's journal, but while he could probably have read it a lot faster than she could, she wasn't totally convinced he'd tell her what was in it, or (more accurately) everything that was in it. She wondered why a group of agents would be trying to use him and bring her down at the same time. _Or are they trying to use him to get to me? _She snorted._ I may play the games, but I'm not hung up on anyone; that way lies disaster for any agent. _Other women might gush over love and husbands and children, but that wasn't to Rouge's taste, and any agent who let emotional entanglements develop tended to cease being an agent rather swiftly. The object of said emotions became either a potential hostage or a potential threat, and Rouge had seen several other agents' supposed 'one-nighters' become exactly the snare that brought them down. Therefore she adhered to her 'look but don't touch' policy; she was privately convinced it got better results anyway, since males seemed to imagine far more than reality could possibly give them. She teased, hinted, and implied, but committed to nothing. The incredible part was that she could go back a few days later and go through the whole rigamarole again, and most males would fall for it even harder. But right now plain speaking was what was needed - or as plain as she ever spoke. The question was how much she should actually tell Sonic.

She guessed that Tails would either go home with the robot, or take it to Sonic, so she headed for the suburb of Emerald Town, where they both lived, and on which beach the Gizoid had been found. Sure enough, she spotted the fox cub and the robot just heading out toward the ocean, and followed them right to the blue hedgehog. He was sprawled on one of the outcrops, looking enormously bored and kicking one toe against the rock. Rouge dropped down as Tails hailed him and Sonic sat up.

"Tails, what took you so long?" she overheard. "What's going on?"

"Sonic, you won't believe what I found out about Emerl," replied the cub. In contrast to the hedgehog's eager questions, he sounded solemn, almost frightened.

Before Sonic could ask for details, Rouge stepped up behind the fox and declared, "Emerl's the world's deadliest weapon!" _Grab 'em fast, and give 'em a shocking enough lead that they won't think too hard about the rest of your speech._

"Rouge!" gasped Tails, jumping aside.

"You!" exclaimed Sonic, automatically suspicious.

"Me!" answered the bat, in a fit of mischief.

Sonic was not amused. "What are you talking about?"

"Yeah, it's the truth!" interjected Tails. "That's what I discovered at the Central Lab!"

"A weapon?" Sonic looked skeptically at the robot. It was cleaner than when he'd found it but it looked nothing like a weapon or fighting machine, even to Rouge, who'd fought it already, and seen it fighting Shadow twice.

"Yes, and a very lethal one!" She debated whether to explain Eggman's plot. Sonic probably wouldn't believe it, and if he did, she wasn't sure if he'd dump the robot to spoil the plan, or play along with the intent of foiling the villain at the last moment.

"No, I can't believe it!" The blue brow furrowed, and the emerald-green eyes flickered as Sonic thought furiously. Then he brightened, turning to Tails. "He's just a robot, right? You could change its insides real quick, and fix this problem, right?" _Problem solved_, said his attitude.

But Tails was shaking his head. "Actually he's _not_ just a robot," he contradicted, "my lab computer got fried when Emerl was connected to it, and we were chased by Guard Robos when we accessed Emerl's data at the Central Lab!"

Sonic's quills seemed to droop a bit. "Seriously?" He listened as the fox explained what he had managed to recover, the Gizoid's history and ability to copy weapons and fighting moves. Rouge listened and watched the blue hedgehog seem to change slightly, becoming more focused and actually reminding her faintly of Shadow. _He's taken the Gizoid on as a cause_, she realized. _Not just a casual lark, something to do on a dull day, but an actual threat that needs to be countered. _She decided it was time to intercede.

Sonic was asking, "And there's no way to shut it down?" Tails shook his head.

"But there is one way," the bat offered.

Green eyes locked onto hers, and she was startled at the intensity behind them. "Well, let me hear it!" snapped the hedgehog impatiently.

"Chaos Emeralds!"

"Chaos Emeralds?" Sonic and Tails chorused in unison, exchanging glances.

"That's right," Rouge confirmed, hurrying before they decided she wanted the gems for herself (she did, of course, but not this instant). "Collect all seven Chaos Emeralds, and insert them into Emerl."

The two exchanged another glance, this one more puzzled and less suspicious. After a moment Sonic scratched his head and looked back at the bat. "What happens then?"

"Then we can reset Emerl and turn him into an ordinary robot, and erase all his data as a battle weapon." That wasn't exactly what Shadow had told her, but as long as the Gizoid wouldn't use the data, it was as good as erased, wasn't it? And telling them it would be gone seemed more likely to encourage them to follow her suggestion.

Sonic considered briefly then brightened. "Sounds like a plan! So how would we reset him?" Tails was still thinking it over, but looked at Rouge as Sonic asked that question.

Which she didn't have an answer to. She opened her mouth, ready to say something that sounded good. "I - I don't know," she admitted. She was as surprised as they were by the admission.

"What?" Sonic couldn't believe it. "You don't know?"

"I know there is a way," she explained a bit stiffly, "but I don't know the exact method, yet. I'm still researching the matter."

Sonic snorted and looked away in disgust. Tails was still staring off into the distance, flicking his tails slowly back and forth. "So all we have to do is find seven Chaos Emeralds and then find a way to reset him," he said thoughtfully. The hedgehog frowned at him, but held his peace, waiting impatiently. Tails was young, but extremely smart, and Rouge knew if either of them was going to reject her plan, it would be the cub. And Sonic went along with him more often then not, despite his vaunted independence. "He's got two already," Tails went on slowly, "the one we got from Knuckles and the one I had. Shadow's probably got one; GUN's got one, I remember they mentioned it in the news report about him stopping the meteorites; so we need to find the other three and get Shadow and GUN to give us theirs." The orange fox looked at Rouge dubiously. "Can you get those? And help us locate the other three?"

The bat nodded. Certainly she _could_ - he hadn't asked if she _would_ do it. Smart as he was, he still had a lot to learn. But having the robot blow up the planet was hardly in her best interests, so she'd probably help them anyway. "Then, he'll be free, once and for all!" she said encouragingly.

Tails grinned at her. His older friend was still not entirely convinced. "Let me ask you one more thing, Rouge,"said Sonic.

She suppressed a sigh. "What is it?"

He raised and eyebrow at her. "What's in it for you by giving us all this information?"

_Ouch! He might not be as smart as the fox boy, but he's not dumb. _He acted so spontaneously it was easy to forget that. "You make it sound like I never do a good deed unless I profit from it," she countered.

"Am I wrong?" He saw her counter and raised it.

"Well, I do good deeds sometimes," she replied, a bit feebly.

"Well, I do good deeds," he mimicked, paused significantly, then concluded, "on occasion."

The bat glowered at him, ignoring the cub, who had started to giggle. Reaching a decision, she told them, "As you probably already know, Doctor Eggman is also hunting Emerl down."

"Eggman!" Surely the hedgehog wasn't really that surprised?

"Yes and he's still trying to do the same old thing," she expanded, raising a querying brow of her own.

"Conquer the world!" crowed Tails.

Rouge grinned at him. "Yes. And if he conquers the world," she buffed her nails along her collarbone, drawing Sonic's eyes if not the fox's, "it'll make any job involving stealing jewels more difficult. So I guess I'm doing the world a big favor." She finished humbly, peering at Sonic under her lashes. Actually, she rather suspected that if Eggman took over the world, the ensuing chaos would make stealing jewels easier, at least temporarily, but she doubted Sonic really cared, as long as she offered him a superficially plausible explanation. He wasn't stupid, but he wasn't a deep thinker like Shadow, either.

"A big favor?" he snorted. "You're a thief! And, you're after Emerl too, right?"

Rouge bristled in mock indignation. It allowed her to puff out her chest nicely. "Hey, these accusations aren't very nice. And that kid over there knows that I'm more than just a thief." She huffed a few times to show that he'd vexed her. (Which puffed her chest even more nicely.)

"Is that true, Tails?" He knew perfectly well she was an agent, but for some reason (perhaps because his eyeballs were glued to her cleavage) he didn't seem to remember.

"Y-yeah," said the cub slowly, looking back and forth between the other two, "I guess." He might know intellectually why Sonic was staring at Rouge's chest, but he didn't _understand_ yet, not at a gut level. (_Or perhaps a bit below the gut_, the bat thought with a mental smirk.) Tails knew that Sonic knew what she was, and he didn't know why the hedgehog was asking him. Rouge had to fight not to laugh at his bewilderment.

She relaxed and folded her arms across her chest, cutting off Sonic's view. "Oh," she said as he shook his head and blinked, "and can you finally introduce me to your little robot?"

Still a bit dazed, Sonic looked up. "Don't you know Emerl already?"

"It– " she corrected herself, "_he_ won't even say 'hello' to me unless you order him to do so." Her ears twitched; someone was approaching on foot, but still out of sight behind the rocks.

"Oh, yeah," the hedgehog seemed to come back into focus. "He was like that with Tails too in the beginning. Emerl, come here!"

"Come! Come!" agreed the robot, walking up behind the bat.

"Listen. You have to listen to Rouge from now on, OK?"

"Listen! Listen!"

"All right!" said Rouge smugly. She'd identified the steps as probably being Knuckles - the echidna had a rather emphatic walk, almost a march, when he was off his island. _Time to go._ "See ya!" she said and spread her wings.

Sonic gaped. "H-hey Rouge! Don't you want to talk to him now?"

Again she had to smother a laugh. "No more time to chat now," she feigned regret well, if she did say so herself! "Maybe some other time."

"Some other time! Some other time!" she heard Emerl calling as she flew away. A glimpse of crimson fur confirmed that the approaching dokan was Knuckles, but she had other things to do right now than tease the echidna.

She decided that there was probably too much confusion back at Central Labs to do anything useful there, so she returned to her own apartment, located above Club Rouge, a nightclub she actually owned. Booting up her computer, she started a trace on the GUN Chaos Emerald. She found numerous references to the vault on Prison Island (although most of the sources didn't know the actual location), where GUN had once stored three of the Emeralds before she herself had liberated them during the second ARK crisis. But she also found several of the reports Tails had mentioned, describing how Shadow the Hedgehog was taking on the fragments of the Black Comet armed only with 'a jewel that glows like blood'. _Hah. Obviously the red one then, so let's try searching for that._ She started another search - and sat back, laughing. GUN, it turned out, had borrowed it from a jewelry store right there in Central City, and it was now back on display - less than twelve blocks from her apartment.

_Well, that'll be no problem to get hold of. Actually, I wonder . . . . _She considered what she'd said in that monologue that the bug had recorded. An absolutely evil grin formed on her lips as a plan formed in her mind. She pulled open a specially shielded drawer, and pulled out the bug that the janitor had planted on her, and her transmission detector. Rolling the fake rhinestone between her fingers, she worked out her schedule for the next day, saying just enough out loud to verify that the device was still transmitting. Whether anyone was still listening was another question, but it cost nothing to lay a trail, even if nothing took the bait. Shutting the computer down, she heated up a frozen meal, then took a long, leisurely bath before bed, putting in her earplugs to block the noise of the nightclub downstairs.

She was up fairly early the next morning, and turned her attention back to Gerald's journal. She was annoyed to find that the next entry did not talk about Shadow, as she'd expected, but was a critique of some 'new' paper by a renegade anthropologist, suggesting that the standard thinking was wrong and the Fourth Great Civilization - which Gerald and most historians, anthropologists and archaeologists linked to the Babylonians - might actually be a 'lost' branch of the echidna tribes. Rouge skipped most of the details, which were meaningless to her at any rate, and picked back up where the Professor was concluding that the young man raised good points, but did not, in Gerald's mind, actually prove them. Gerald considered his stone tablet, written in Babylonian cuneiform, to be proof enough that the Babylonians or their near neighbors were the Fourth Great Civilization. The monuments of the echidnas were impressive, but showed none of the technological mastery of the Gizoid, while excavations in the Babylonian lands had revealed unusual machinery. Growling in annoyance, she flipped the page to the next entry.

And grinned. _Jackpot!_ Now, at last, Professor Gerald was telling how he had created Shadow: the specific manipulations made; the setup of the artificial womb, with space for the Gizoid and its Chaos Emerald to stand guard. _Hah, I wonder if Shadow knows he was intended to be gold, like Super Sonic? Not to mention what Knuckles would do if he knew that Professor Gerald had stolen a Chaos Emerald from Angel Island, right under his predecessor's nose. _The artificial womb was a variation of the stasis pods Rouge was familiar with, modified to grow an embryo from fertilization through birth-size and beyond, although the latter use was severely frowned upon by most people and religions. But it could be used, as in Shadow's case, to produce a fully matured, flash-trained individual. However, when Black Doom arrived to witness the transference of the embryo into the pod, the alien dumped a vial of glowing green goo that he claimed was his blood on top of it. Even in the journal, Gerald was practically spluttering with anger at that casual destruction, as it might have been, of all his work and dreams for Maria. But he had managed to retrieve the cell cluster and install it into the womb safely, and it appeared to still be alive and well, although it would be several days before he could safely remove a cell to see what damage the alien's blood might have wrought. The alien had also added a Black Arms-manufactured device to the unit, claiming that it would enhance growth of the embryo so that it would be matured in four months.

The next entry was written with a feel of relief; the carefully adjusted genes of the tiny hedgehog-to-be had not been damaged, although there were several cellular and chemical changes that concerned the scientist, as they seemed to control certain cellular functions without having an obvious source of that control. Gerald had theorized that the aliens might be telepathic, and feared that either telepathy or Chaos energy might permit Black Doom to take control of Project: Shadow against the hedgehog's own will. He was already taking steps to counter those changes, although he would leave a remnant, to allow just enough control that the alien would not be suspicious, but it would be a control that Shadow would be able to break. Rouge shivered as she deciphered that part of the text. _I remember that all too well. I thought we were goners when the alien just took over Shadow like that - and then he broke free, just like he'd already broken free of the gas . . . ._ She glanced at the clock and put the book down regretfully. Time to go grab the Gizoid, and take him 'shopping'.


	8. Borrowing a Weapon

7. Borrowing a Weapon

Rouge checked to make certain the bug was transmitting. She'd reattached it to her boot before setting out to the beach, and was now back on her preferred outcrop, watching Sonic, Tails, and the Gizoid sparring. Movement on the opposite end of the beach drew her attention and she turned to identify the pink hedgehog, Amy Rose, jogging up the beach. _Perfect_, she thought. _She'll run Sonic off, and then I can take the Gizoid from Tails. Sonic told it to listen to me yesterday, so if I wait until he's gone, no one can countermand that order. _Aloud, she said to the bug, "All right! He's finally given it permission to listen to my commands. Now all I have to do is steal that robot, and then we can be off to the Marauve Gallery for some thieving lessons." She tsked, and continued, "But those guys are always hanging around it . . . . That'll make things a little difficult," she shook her head, did these people really believe that a spy could manage to do anything if she talked to herself this much? "Hmm." Sonic, Tails and Emerl had come closer, and Amy was almost at the opposite side of the outcrop. As usual, no one looked up, which was why Rouge preferred this particular rock; it was taller than the rest and she could sit in plain view and rarely be seen. Rouge smirked as Amy caught sight of her blue hero and called to him in that piercing wail of hers. Sonic panicked at the sound of his self-appointed girlfriend and predictably fled, leaving Tails and the Gizoid to bear the onus of her company. He gabbled something before he left that the bat didn't quite catch, but she thought he'd told Emerl to listen to Amy. That might complicate matters, but the day she couldn't handle a lovesick twelve-year-old, she'd retire. She moved closer to the edge of her rock and spied on the children below.

"Sonic?" Amy turned around, twice, as if expecting the escaped hedgehog would suddenly reappear. Then she noticed the big golden robot next to Tails. Actually, slightly in front of Tails, who appeared to be trying to hide behind it. "What is this thing?" she asked, circling around it.

"That's Emerl," answered Tails, who was clutching the white tip of one of his tails in both hands.

"Emerl?"

"It's his pet project," the cub explained. "His baby." Rouge saw him flinch, realizing his mistake an instant too late.

"Baby?" gasped the pink hedgehog. "Sonic's?"

The fox cub gulped, twisting his tail in his hands while the other coiled behind him. "Well, yeah, it's sort of like that," he temporized.

Amy wasn't listening. "Oh, Sonic," she swooned, clasping her hands in front of her chest. "Oh my gosh! He's already practicing for our little one," her eyes widened at a new thought, "I wonder if this is a sign that we'll be married soon. I can't believe it! My dream is about to come true!"

"I, I don't know about that," stammered the fox cub, gaping at the girl. Rouge, watching from above, was nearly choking in her effort not to laugh. Crushes were a normal part of growing up, but really! Surely _she'd_ never been that besotted. And the poor fox boy, who clearly was expecting to get pounded any moment - which the girl would, if anyone implied Sonic wasn't madly in love with her, and Amy swung a mean hammer.

Poor Tails' words did, in fact, rouse her ire. "Did you say something?" Amy demanded, switching from dreamy to furious in an eyeblink.

Tails backed up fast, flicking his tails into readiness behind him. "I, I should go look for Sonic. I'll see you later, OK?" He was already in the air, tailicoptering away before he finished speaking.

Left alone with the robot, Amy turned back to Emerl. She looked him over again and said, "Hello. I'm Amy. I'm your new mommy!"

Emerl, who probably had no idea what the word meant, was enthusiastic as always. "Mommy! Mommy!"

_Taking candy from a baby? Or a baby from Candy? _sniffed Rouge as she dropped to the sand. "Finally," she purred, "here's my chance."

Amy turned at the sounds behind her. "Rouge," she said with clear distaste. "What a pleasant surprise! What dirty little deed are you up to now?"

"Why you little–" the bat started, although in truth she was more amused than angry. _Jealousy over Sonic, or simple scorn for my perceived morals? Or lack of them, more like. _She shook her head. "I have a little business to take care of with that robot over there. Emerl, let's go!"

"Let's go! Let's go!" cheered Emerl and managed a decent pace across the sand to join her. He had definitely improved since that trip to Angel Island; they must have acquired a Chaos Emerald for him there.

Amy stepped between them, flicking her wrist so that her trademark mallet appeared in her hand. "Hold it! Where do you think you're taking my baby?"

"Wha–" Rouge gaped at the pink hedgehog in disbelief. "I think you better go get your head examined, dear girl." She couldn't seriously believe Sonic intended this robot as a - could she? And even if he did, that it would make a difference . . .

"Hey, you looking for a fight?" demanded the girl, stepping forward and bringing her hammer up to a ready position. Rouge gave ground, still incredulous at this turn of events. Not that she was frightened by the child, but it was simply ridiculous. Making a sudden decision, she skipped back another step, turned it into a backflip, and darted forward on wing to slip around Amy and grab the Gizoid's shoulders. She was amazed (and relieved) at how little he weighed - about half what a dokan his size would have weighed - and instantly modified her plan. Instead of boosting him onto the rocks, out of Amy's reach, the bat simply flew off with him. Since the Gizoid had been given no orders to the contrary, he didn't struggle, but allowed her to carry him off. Amy gave a wail of dismay, but Rouge had flown away over the rocks deliberately; the hedgehog would have to either climb over or run around them, by which time the robot and the bat would be well out of sight.

Chuckling to herself, Rouge finally set Emerl down near where the 'daylight' business district of Central City merged with the nighttime 'business' district. The appropriately- if unimaginatively - named 'Club Rouge' was in the nighttime section, of course . Most of her patrons were only interested in alcohol and impressing the opposite sex, so lack of imagination was hardly a business flaw. Besides, a few did appreciate the pun on Rouge and rouge, even if each of them thought he was the first person to ever make the connection. The women probably got the joke more often, but none of them had ever bothered to comment on it to the proprietress. Rouge wondered if Boris was there yet. He was the club's manager; her job as a government agent, plus her periodic treasure-hunting trips, made it difficult to run a business. Her youth and height were also problematic at times; since she barely topped three feet, humans tended to treat her as even younger than her eighteen years. Boris was also stealing about five percent of the take a month - he had originally ranged between two and fifteen, depending on the month, until Rouge sat him down and informed him, while toying with the jeweled dagger that was her most recent acquisition, that he could level it off at five percent so she could balance her books, or get reported to the police for embezzlement, which he'd already been fired for twice. And unlike his prior employers, Rouge had all the proof needed to take him to court for it - he'd been so certain that his absentee, young, female employer wouldn't notice, that he hadn't covered his tracks as well as he should have. Rouge didn't particularly mind the loss; she had all the money she needed, and it guaranteed that he couldn't pick up and leave, for fear that she would report him. And except for that little flaw, he was an excellent manager.

At any rate, they needed to get to the Club, first, and she was leading the Gizoid in that direction when a mechanical voice sounded behind her.

"Target locked," grated the ambushing robot.

"Ha?" the bat spun, and the first glimpse of red and black in the shadows made her think the attacker was Omega. "What's your problem?" she demanded, although she guessed he might have mistaken Emerl for one of Eggman's robots. Omega had a grudge against his creator and intended to eliminate all of the Doctor's other creations in revenge.

"Initiating battle mode," came the reply, and as the attacker stepped out of the alley, she saw that it wasn't Omega after all, although there was something vaguely familiar about it. It was certainly neither one of the currently ubiquitous Egg pawns nor a Phi, though.

"Amy! Amy!" cried the Gizoid, although whether he was calling for assistance or warning, Rouge didn't know. Nor did she particularly care.

"Oh come on! Give it up, will ya?" She snarled at the red robot. In reply it fired a pair of guns at course, she wasn't there any more, she'd already taken wing. Emerl, to her surprise, followed, although he had no wings that she could see, or even a mechanical alternative like jets. So the battle was joined.

It didn't last very long. It became quickly clear to Rouge that the attacking robot couldn't aim its guns higher than about 45 degrees from ground level, even though it could spin rapidly on its axis. This enabled her to keep directly overhead and put her steel-toed boots to good use. The Doctor generally put the controlling computers in the heads of his bipedal robots, even though an internal unit might be less easily located and harder to damage. Emerl didn't seem to have picked up her kicks yet, after swooping around a bit, he landed and did a Sonic-style kick or two, ignoring the sharp 'ping' of the attacker's bullets ricocheting off his exterior. Abruptly, the red robot folded in on itself and went still.

The bat landed beside it, eyeing it warily. It was definitely an E-series robot, but more primitive than E-123 Omega. The paint was damaged in several places, but there was an E-10 blazon, with the last number damaged. A 2 or a 3, perhaps? Rouge shrugged. "Come on, Emerl, let's get going."

But as she turned to leave, the red robot suddenly rose up again. "Initiating battle mode." it droned, again.

"Give it up, will you?" answered Rouge. This time the reply was a grenade launched at her, but that couldn't target her at a steep angle either. This time Emerl tried to employ several of her kicks, but there wasn't really room for both of them to stay out of the danger zone. Rouge ordered the Gizoid to attack from the ground, and he did just that; dropping into a crouch and duplicating the red robot's guns to shoot back at it. In short order she and Emerl had put it down again, and this time the mech was rocked by an explosion as it collapsed. Fortunately, Rouge was circling at that point and Emerl had actually landed the last blow, because she doubted she could have shrugged off the terminal explosion as easily as the Gizoid did. "Come on!" she informed the remains (from a safe distance), "What did I ever do to you?" She decided it was really 'dead' and walked away. "Hmm." Except for the red and black paint and the E-series number, it looked like the standard Guard Robos that were sold by Robotnik Inc. "That Guard Robo looked a lot like Omega,"she mused, then waved to the Gizoid. "Oh, well! Let's head to my place in Night Babylon!"

First, however, she took a look at the door the Guard Robo had apparently come through. Scratched into the filthy bricks above the doorway were the words, 'Gimme Shelter'. The door, although superficially dirty and peeling, was clearly far too well constructed for the surrounding buildings, and when the bat laid a cautious hand on the red paint she could feel the faint vibration of motors or machinery beyond it. Carefully scrutinizing the surrounding wall, she found a loose brick that pulled away to reveal a standard Eggman keypad, complete with the man's mustached logo. With a snort, Rouge replaced the brick; she'd remember the location but wasn't interested in it right now. Beckoning Emerl again, she returned to the mouth of the alley

Before they got there, Shadow appeared in a blaze of blue light. With a sharp gasp, he dropped to his knees, clapping his hands to the side of his head. Frowning, Rouge hurried toward him, wondering why, if he was so Ultimate, he couldn't remember that his powers weren't up to being used after that attack he'd had. _First the Black Comet collapse, then his two failed battles with the Gizoid, and now this?_

But he was already straightening up, and rather than pained, he looked dazed, as if he'd been awakened suddenly from a sound sleep. He moved past Rouge without apparently seeing her, focusing on Emerl like a man lost in the desert might focus on a mirage of a lake. "This," he murmured, so quietly that even the bat could hardly hear him, "this is what called me."

"It's the Gizoid," said Rouge sharply, rather annoyed at being ignored. Besides, he certainly ought to know what the thing was - he was the one who'd told her how to reprogram it! "A legendary weapon," she added, when he continued to stare at the robot.

Suddenly he started, turning to look at her in surprise. "You . . . Rouge. What are you doing here?"

_He's drunk_, she thought. She'd seen that often enough at her club, the slowed reflexes and the slightly unfocused gaze. _No, not drunk, it's more like he's drugged._ She'd seen that too, although no one who came into her place under that influence was ever allowed back in. And anyone caught actually using was promptly handed over to the authorities. Some things she couldn't ignore, not if she wanted to keep her job with the government. But she wouldn't have thought Shadow vulnerable to most drugs, and he didn't seem the type to use them, anyway. His life may have been rough, but he clearly preferred to face things head on, not try to escape them."Hey, I've got information sources everywhere," she said casually. "There's nothing I can't find out about if–"

"You said it was a weapon?" he cut her off. Suddenly he stared around wildly, as if expecting to be attacked.

Thinking fast, Rouge wondered if the agents that had sicced him on the Gizoid knew how much he knew about it. Hoping that they didn't, she helpfully filled him in, as if he knew nothing. Not that he seemed to be listening, he had a deer-in-the-headlights look. "You'll never change, will you? That robot, Gizoid, is known as the 'Ultimate Being'. Just like you, except he's four thousand years older. I heard the Doctor was hiding something really big, and I guess this is it–"

This time it was an alarm that cut her off, and a perfectly concealed door opened up to disgorge a squad of Guard Robos. These were the standard model Robotnik Enterprises sold to banks, warehouses and other businesses interested in security guards that never slept; as she'd thought, except for the uniform grey color, they were identical to the red robot she'd fought earlier. "Intruder Alert! Intruder Alert!" came the chorus of mechanical voices.

"Dang!" swore Shadow. Rouge giggled, in spite of herself. He glanced at her. "What's so funny?"

"It's been a while since we fought together like this!" Which had nothing to do with her giggle - which was at the idea that even a squad of these robots could take on her or the Ultimate Life-form separately, let alone together - but she was still cognizant of the bug on her boot. She wished she knew if anyone was listening; she hated to think she might be wasting all this acting on a dead circuit.

"Just don't get in my way!" said Shadow finally.

"You too!" she agreed, but she was more worried than she let show. He was still moving as if he were underwater, and seemed to be sensing things at a remove, which was not a good way to go into a battle. And it was nothing at all like earlier, when he'd been fighting the Gizoid: then he'd not been using his Chaos powers, or not as much, but his own motions had still been as quick and precise as ever, despite his atypical lack of stamina. But the guards opened fire and there was no time to ask or to worry, merely dodging and darting away from missiles and rays or into range for a bat-bomb or a kick. She dimly noted that Shadow _was_ making full use of his Chaos powers, but had no time to see more than that.

It was no easy fight, but the Guard Robos were so thick on the ground they interfered with each other, and as with the red one, their guns had a restricted range above the horizontal. Abruptly Rouge found herself and Shadow in the clear and dropped next to him a moment, stretching one wing that had been heated if not quite burned by a laser. The alarms ceased as her feet hit the ground, and the dark hedgehog flinched as if he'd had cold water flung on him. "Hey, not bad," she commented.

The scarlet eyes blinked, then tracked towards her, and then he grunted and staggered as a bullet slammed into his side.

"Shadow! What happened? That was just one of the Doctor's random robots!" Rouge was appalled; Omega might take Shadow down, or Metal Sonic, but they were elites, not this run-of-the-mill trash Eggman sold off to anyone with money.

"It's nothing," Shadow started , but then was struck again, even as he started to dodge. He went to his knees, gasping, as a trail of blood began tracing the crimson stripe along his outer arm, matching the fur it was soaking.

"Hey, Shadow!" Rouge shook cautiously at his other shoulder, but got no articulate reply; the dark hedgehog merely hissed through his teeth. Two of the robotic guards were still active and approaching, although only the one who had shot Shadow still had a functional gun. "This isn't good," said the bat. She gave Shadow another shake, but whatever was wrong with him, he didn't seem to be shaking it off.

"Intruder," grated a robot.

"Shut up already!" she snapped at it and kicked it into its companion, hard enough to take them both down. They really weren't anything that even the little rabbit would have trouble with; there was no way the stupid machines should have hit the Ultimate Life-form. "Oh, well," she decided, waving Emerl over, "I'll have to take you to Club Rouge." The dark hedgehog didn't reply, slumping further and shaking his head. "Hey, Shadow! Can't you even walk on your own?"

Shadow gave an uncertain lurch, possibly trying to stand, possibly not, and collapsed on the pavement. Rouge looked around sharply. The Guard Robos were in pieces and there were no passersby to interfere or assist. She started to order the Gizoid to pick up the dark hedgehog, then changed her mind. "Emerl, keep guard," she ordered. "Walk alongside and protect us from any attackers." She hauled Shadow up, noting that he did indeed weigh twice what the robot did, for all he was four inches shorter, and wrapped his uninjured arm over her shoulders. He didn't seem quite conscious, but he managed to stagger along beside her. _Eternal youth and health_, she thought. _That's what he was designed for. I wonder if a hospital would know what to do with him? _The first shot that had struck him had grazed his side, leaving more of a burn than a puncture, and the second had gone though the muscles of his upper arm._ I'll take him to the club first, and call an ambulance from there_, she decided,_ if it looks like he needs one. He said something once about how he could heal better if doctors didn't interfere with him, but I'm not sure if that was physical healing, or mental._ She set out through Night Babylon, glad that it wasn't yet night, because even she didn't like walking these streets in the dark. Emerl might be able to fend off attackers, but he didn't look threatening enough to ward thugs away from attacking in the first place.

They reached Club Rouge safely, and as she led Shadow and the Gizoid around back, the hedgehog collapsed completely. She left him a moment to unlock the door, then picked him up and let the three of them in. She plopped her burden as carefully as she could onto the couch and checked his wounds. The graze on his side had turned from angry red to pale, and was already regrowing a haze of dark fur. The injury to his arm looked worse than his side, but once she cleaned the blood off, she could see that it was also healing. After a few moments' consideration, she decided that a bit of antibiotic cream shouldn't hurt, so she applied some and bandaged Shadow's arm, then tucked a blanket around him. "We're here!" His eyes flickered behind their lids, but he showed no signs of rousing. She muttered to herself as she cleaned up the first aid supplies, more blowing off steam than truly angry. "I can't believe that he'd fall down right in front of the door! Having me carry anything that's heavier than jewelry? The nerve! I'll never do this again! Not even for all the jewels in the . . . well . . . ." She looked at him again and remembered her shock at seeing that sleeping face in Doctor Eggman's base, when everyone had believed him to be dead. Rouge shivered slightly. Was he breaking down somehow, either through a miscalculation of Gerald's or something that had happened while in the Doctor's possession, or Black Doom's? There had really been something not right about him in that alley. She sank down in a nearby chair with a sigh and started to kick off her boots. "You're still alive, right, Shadow?" She shook her head. "He's not bad looking, but . . . ." What would people think if they saw her dragging unconscious bodies around?

Shaking off her ridiculous surge of fear, she put the bug back in the shielded drawer and took Emerl down the hall to her private training room. The room was floored with padded mats and various pieces of gym and fighting equipment stood around the edges. Dragging a weapon rack away from the wall, she revealed a false door with about a dozen different locks and several electronic alarms attached. Switching the alarms on, she started teaching the Gizoid to pick locks and crack security codes, trying to block thoughts of her new houseguest from her mind.


	9. A Weapon Distracted

8. A Weapon Distracted

Shadow spotted the Gizoid standing in the street and ran up to it. He hoped it hadn't Linked with anyone yet.

"Shadow!"

Oops, he hadn't seen Sonic, knocking on Tails' door. "Huh? Sonic . . . sorry, but I don't have time to play with you now. Hey!" he called to the Gizoid. "Can you hear me? Respond!" The robot gazed blankly ahead. "No!" Shadow groaned, more to himself than the robot. "You must have already established a Link!"

The golden form didn't move. The bulbous eyes made it difficult to tell if was even looking at him. "Shadow!" repeated Sonic, this time sounding more annoyed than surprised.

Shadow tried again. "Hey! You, over here!" He raised a hand and summoned a Chaos spear. Which inexplicably failed to appear. Well, there was another way to show the Gizoid his 'power'. "Won't listen to me, eh?" he challenged the robot. "In that case, I'll beat you with my bare hands!"

"Hey, stop that!" hollered Sonic, but Shadow ignored him. Suddenly Sonic was in front of him, slamming Shadow to a halt by planting a hand on his chest.

Shadow grunted at the impact and growled "Get out of the way, and give me that robot!"

"And if I say no?" Sonic cocked an eyebrow at his black rival.

"Then I will beat you too."

His speed rivaled Sonic's, and the hover skates gave him an edge, but he was unable to hit the blue hedgehog. He realized Sonic was toying with him, making a show of fighting, while Shadow's own skills were mysteriously missing. Suddenly Shadow remembered the Black Comet, and the mental explosion that had plunged him into darkness. There seemed to be afterimages rippling around him, echoes of unheard screams.

Shadow snarled with frustration. _I still haven't regained my full power yet._ "Listen to me!" he called to Sonic. "Whatever you do, don't let Dr. Eggman get hold of the Gizoid. I'll be back; until then, take care of it." He slapped the Gizoid on the top of its head, and skated off in a hurry.

Light blazed into his eyes, blinding him, as he stumbled dripping out of a small space, dimly feeling the chill of his wet fur. A white and black shape stepped backwards, but before his vision cleared another movement to the side alerted him, and he leaped forward, knocking Rouge the Bat to the ground as a machine gun opened fire on where he'd been standing. "Stay here," he ordered and charged the attacker, bouncing from wall to wall to avoid being hit. A large, red robot tried to bring another weapon to bear before Rouge ordered them both to halt. With irritation in her voice she asked the robot why it was attacking.

"I am E-123 Omega. I was created by Eggman as the strongest of all of his E-series robots, then he locked me up here to kill anyone who tried to come in and activate that unit." _Omega_, thought Shadow, _he's another weapon, created to defeat me, then set to guard me, and angry with his lot in life. _ The dark hedgehog looked back and forth between the two robots, the scarlet E-123 and the golden Gizoid, as they stood spotlighted in the darkness. He was standing in a third shaft of light, he realized, coming from an unknown source. _Where are we? _He repeated the question aloud, "Where are we?" The robots turned slightly, bringing gold- and blue-glowing eyes to bear on him, but gave no answer.

"Looks like you both have one thing in common," said a familiar voice. Sonic himself was nowhere to be seen, however. _Both? The two robots, or one robot and myself? What do we–? _"Persistence," the voice answered Shadow's silent question.

Another voice, unfamiliar - or was it? - echoed in the darkness. "Sonic the Hedgehog . . . Awakening as a weapon of war . . . Chaos Emerald . . ." And other voices, or the same one many times, repeated "Chaos Emerald, Emerald, --rald, os Emer-, Emerald ." The voices grew louder, repeating , echoing, colliding like ripples on a pond, until the dark hedgehog clapped his gloved hands over his flattened ears crouching to hide, then leaping up to flee, skating through the unending darkness, faster and faster until he almost ran into–

Tails. The little orange fox looked up in surprise. "Shadow! What are you doing here?"

"Looks like you discovered what Emerl really is," said the black dokan, with surprising calmness. He looked around, but saw only a normal, daylit, Central City street. The only sounds were traffic noises and the breeze in the sickly little trees planted in the sidewalks. Where had the darkness gone, and the voices?

"Y-Yeah," said Tails nervously.

_He ought to be worried, knowing what the Gizoid can do. _His mouth seemed to be on autopilot, speaking of it's own accord: "Then why don't you destroy it now? You must destroy it before it collects all the Chaos Emeralds and uses its true power!"

"Shadow?" The cub frowned in perplexity.

"There's no need to repeat past tragedies! Nobody else ever needs to go through the things I have! Out of the way! I'll finish it now!" Around them, unseen by anyone on the street including Tails, images ran and died: Maria; researchers from the ARK; Professor Gerald, chained to his chair; the ARK plummeted Earthward and was deflected; the Biolizard - another Shadow, another weapon - screamed soundlessly. A metal hedgehog schemed and was reborn as a robotic monster, Black Doom swooped down over a kneeling red and black hedgehog, Doctor Eggman slammed a vault door shut on a sentient robot, leaving it to stand in the darkness and stew in its anger. Another robot, this one golden, was shoved similarly into storage, then loaded onto a shuttle, where it went rampaging on landing. But the fox was oblivious, yelling at Shadow.

"Shadow! I respect you, but . . . Emerl's our friend! If you attack one of us, then I'll do whatever it takes to protect him!"

Shadow whirled; the fox and the street had vanished, leaving the Gizoid again in its shaft of light, Omega in a second, Shadow in a third, but there were others as well: Metal Sonic; the Project: Shadow prototype known as the Biolizard; a red robot that Shadow did not know, but who resembled a Guard Robo; a Shadandroid, part robot, part clone; a Shadow android, entirely mechanical; a large purple cat who held a fishing rod and looked bewildered. Shadow stopped as he looked at this last. "Who–?" he started.

Big the Cat blinked at him. "I'm sorry Mr. Shadow, I was looking for Froggy and I think I got lost." He walked away without actually moving from the light and was suddenly a chao with a bow tie. _Cheese_, realized Shadow after a moment._ But __**he **__wasn't created as a weapon, even if Cream uses him to fight. _The tiny creature looked calmly up at the red-striped hedgehog. After a moment Cheese opened his mouth, but instead of the usual chao-babble, what came out were intelligible words. "Cream is my friend, and I fight to protect her. She doesn't ask me to do it; I fight because sometimes fighting is necessary, and she doesn't like to." The chao flew up to hover at Shadow's eye-level. "It's the choice that makes the difference, but not all creators permit a choice to be made." With that, the chao reached up and yanked a thin chain, turning his light off and vanishing into the black.

"Hmph," said Shadow's voice, as he looked at the gallery of sentient weapons - including himself and the androids. "Looks like you'll never understand. The builders will never know how their creations truly feel."_ I said that– to Tails, wasn't it? So this is a memory?_

"There it is again." His voice again, but this time coming from his mouth by his own will, "I feel it . . . someone's talking to me."

"A strong power," a chorus of soft voices, vaguely familiar.

"Who," Shadow turned again - he was turning into a top, here - but saw nothing in the void between the lights, "who is it?"

"This power . . . must not exist," was it the Gizoid? Or a group of them? (Now _that_ was a chilling thought, but so far as he knew there was only one.) ". . . cannot allow it to happen again . . . the tragedy must not–"

"Tragedy?" interrupted Shadow. Hadn't he had enough tragedies - or near-tragedies? Must he now face another?

A pause, then faint as the wind, ". . . yes . . ."

"What tragedy?"

The chorus murmured something, but it was too faint or chaotic for him to make out. And then he sat up in bed, in his own room, feeling dizzy and with a strange twisting feeling in his gut. And there were still noises in his head, not voices exactly, but . . . he wasn't sure what. ". . . the same illusion . . ." he muttered as he stood up. "This is it. I feel the emanations over here." He turned, feeling that there was a direction to the 'sounds', and identifying it. "Well then," he picked up his green Chaos Emerald, and the noise strengthened somewhat, although he still couldn't identify it. "Let's see what we've got here!" Without even considering the risks of teleporting to an unknown area, or giving heed to his queasiness or his weakness during his last fight, he pulled power from the Emerald, "Chaos Control!"

Abruptly the voices were shrieking in his head, a cacophony of soundless noise. It was impossible to think or focus. He shook his head, spotted a golden form in front of him, and remembered that its voice had been in his dream. "This," his legs moved and the thing came closer, or he went closer to it, "this is what called to me."

Another voice joined the noise, he thought, one that his ears actually heard. Blinking, he realized he was in a filthy alley, with the Gizoid in front of him and a white, winged dokan behind him. "You," he started, then recognized her, "Rouge. What are you doing here?" Had she heard the voices too? She must have, bats had excellent hearing.

He wished his was a bit better; he saw her mouth move, but couldn't make out the words. The voices swirled around him like blizzard winds, tugging and shoving from all directions so that it was all he could do to stand up. Or like a jar of water being shaken, with water crashing every which way. One word got through, although he couldn't remember when he'd heard it. "You said it was a weapon?" Was that what the voices were? A weapon to guard against attacks, or bait to a trap, to lure him in and disorient him? He looked around frantically, were the GUN soldiers coming for him as they had come for the researchers? Suddenly, alarms were going off across the alley-- and simultaneously the 'voices' died back, not gone, but muted.

The world abruptly came into focus, and he was standing the alley still with Rouge and the Gizoid. The wall was sliding open to reveal a squad of Guard Robos. "Dang!" he growled. Rouge giggled beside him. "What's so funny?" he glared at her.

"It's been a while since we fought together like this!"

"Just don't get in my way!" The wall slid shut behind the robots, and a dozen guns swung into position.

"You too!" answered the bat flippantly, as she took to the air.

The alarms shut off, and the voices resurged, pounding against him again. He was badly off his timing, unable to concentrate, or else the robots were better than usual. He kicked, punched and blasted bubbles of Chaos energy at the mechs, then slung a few Chaos Spears for good measure. Too many of the robots dodged out of his way. He struggled for control, but lost his mental grip on the Chaos energy as it seemed to fray around him.

"Not bad," said Rouge, encouragingly, suddenly appearing beside him. Then a slash of pain whipped along his side, making him flinch sideways. "Shadow!" exclaimed the shocked bat, "What happened? That was just one of the Doctor's random robots!"

"It's nothing," Shadow started, but then was struck again, even as he started to dodge. He went to his knees, gasping, feeling a line of heat suddenly sliding down his arm.

"Hey, Shadow!" He hissed in pain as the bat shook his good shoulder. The voices wouldn't shut up, and he wasn't certain which way _was _up so he could stand. "This isn't good," said Rouge's voice in the distance. He thought she went away for a bit, then she was talking to him again. But the voices were louder and the blizzard was yanking at him again. He tried to stand up but the darkness took over the world once more, leaving him alone with the cries in the void.

Where had Rouge gone? She'd help him, he was certain, but she had disappeared . . . then he saw her standing the ruined lab where the doctor had imprisoned him, with Omega beside her, his guns still smoking. "Ally," said Shadow softly.

The bat locked hands with him and the robot, giggling. "Looks like we've formed a new team!"

"Rouge," he said gratefully, as the voices faded and he finally fell asleep.


	10. Subversion of a Weapon

9. Subversion of a Weapon

Marauve Gallery was a small place, in a high-rent district of the city. The owner was as much a crook as an art dealer though, fencing loot that came in the back door, resetting the gems and reworking the precious metals before offering the 'refurbished' jewelry in glass cases alongside the pricey paintings that decorated the walls. Therefore, Rouge had no compunction about relieving him of a few of those refurbished pieces from time to time. He couldn't even report a theft, because official attention would reveal that he lacked true provenance for most of his jewelry and also that many of his paintings were forgeries. She hadn't been there for a while, so she decided that a trip there would be a good first test of the Gizoid's skills. She wasn't about to take a total neophyte on a trip to recover a Chaos Emerald. That would be utterly stupid, since that gem would be under the closest guard of anything in the building. She did, however intend to scout the layout.

She made that trip during the afternoon, leaving Emerl to stand watch at the corner (tucked out of the way behind bus-stop shelter) and sauntered on in to Eureka Gems. She had been in the shop before, and knew that their security was very good during the day. Two obvious security guards stood in their elegantly tailored uniforms to either side of the door, and there was another, plainclothes guard circling discreetly through the displays, pretending to browse. An elegantly coiffed human woman in an emerald green gown glided gracefully towards the bat. Her necklace and earrings were emerald-colored jade set in platinum, and Rouge recognized the design as that of a modern, great artist. "May I help you, madam?"

Rouge had dressed herself carefully for this part of the job, in tailored navy pants and a shirt that, while equally close-fitting, pretended to hide more than her usual bustier. The shirt was white, intricately embroidered in navy and green, with an abstract pattern that curled below her bust, then wrapped around and over her left shoulder. A matching blue and green scarf was tied around her neck, not so incidently concealing a tiny camera. Her bracelets were blue and green agate, valuable not so much for the stones but for the artistry, because the gems and silver had been worked into a double chain of blue flowers amid green leaves and stems. They were heirlooms and looked it, and actually pieces that Rouge legitimately owned. The bat complimented the saleswoman on her jewelry and modestly accepted the return compliments, then explained that she was looking for some fire-toned jewelry to round out a particular outfit, producing another scarf in deep reds and golds. The saleswoman escorted her to several displays, until the bat found one she liked and asked to examine jewelry, politely looking at an adjacent display while the woman opened the case - and rubbing her neck under the scarf to trigger the little camera.

Once the case was opened, Rouge looked back, and studied the necklace carefully. She pulled out her loupe and examined the gems for possible flaws, then felt each carefully, testing for settings that might be too loose. _I may actually have to get an outfit to go with this_, she thought, admiring the intricate interweaving of red, red-orange, and orange-hued gems, which conveyed the impression of leaping flames. The setting itself was a combination of gold and red gold. The bracelets were just as well designed and made, and the earrings were equally lovely, if less detailed. Nodding thoughtfully, she asked about the price. She didn't even blink at the sum named; she'd known it was going to be impressively high. She looked back at the necklace she still held. Incredibly, she hadn't seen anything she could use to legitimately argue for a lower price. It was a master's work, and done with the best gems and material available. She considered the state of her bank account, and the probable fee for this job. "Will ten percent hold it?" she asked, finally. She hadn't actually planned to buy anything, but this work of art was far too lovely to adorn anyone but herself

The saleswoman quickly mastered her surprise, and agreed to the down payment. Signaling to another clerk, she replaced the necklace in the display and set next to it a small card the fawn-colored cat brought over: 'Reserved for a buyer'. Then while the dokan clerk skillfully distracted the bat by complimenting on her planned purchase and her taste, the first woman reclosed the case. Rouge was then escorted to an office where she filled out the perquisite paperwork to have the set reserved for her. Enshrined in the back of the office was a large, scarlet gem that glowed with its own inner light. "Oooh," gushed the bat, looking at it, "what is that? I've never seen a stone like it; how do you get that glow effect?"

The clerk explained that the gem was practically unique, one of seven rare stones called 'Chaos Emeralds' and was on loan from a government collection. It was one of the gems that had helped Sonic and Shadow the Hedgehogs save the world several times over. Rouge smirked inwardly, but kept a fascinated expression directed at the saleswoman, then clumsily knocked a cup full of pens off the desk. While exclaiming in dismay - and while the saleswoman ducked under the desk to scoop up the spilled utensils - she quickly took a few pictures of the Emerald's case. Still apologizing profusely, she handed over the bank card that was exclusively for her jewelry purchases, and waited while the downpayment was debited. Then she was escorted out by the saleswoman, who was no doubt delighted by her commission for such a sale.

Rogue picked up the Gizoid and flew into the darkening twilight, followed by Emerl. She had left him holding a small bag, from which she withdrew a dark blue pullover, charcoal gloves and bonnet, and into which she slipped her agate bracelets and necklace, as well as the camera scarf. Quickly she pulled on her outerwear, hiding her white top and fur beneath the darker colors. It was dark enough now that she became a shadow in the night, and she landed in the shadows outside the Marauve gallery. As she'd expected, it was already closed, and its secondary occupation wouldn't pick up until after midnight; and then only if someone had arranged a transfer during the day. The gallery was in an older house that had been retrofitted as a commercial space, and was surrounded still by residential dwellings. No one was visible walking in the chilly evening, so Rouge flew up to a second floor window on the side of the house. The porch roof gave her a place to stand, and a massive willow tree shielded her and the robot from detection. "Okay Emerl - DON'T say anything out loud - we need to be very quiet, and you need to show me how to get in this window."

There was a slight pause from the robot, then a very quiet "Okay! Okay!" A gold hand slid along the window frame. Rouge wasn't entirely certain how the robot was detecting the alarm wires, but the technique had been perfectly functional on her training door. It was equally effective here, as Emerl detected and neutralized the alarm, then turned one finger into a glass cutter and removed a small piece of window pane. Then he unlatched the window and raised it, and the two slipped inside.

They were in a small bathroom which Rouge didn't think ever got used. The janitor who cleaned the rest of the public spaces kept it reasonably clean, but never noticed the damaged window(which had been already cracked the first time she'd visited) behind the sagging blinds, and the owner had apparently never been in the room himself. Glancing back as Emerl turned his finger into a small heat-gun, Rouge noted the patches on the window from three previous visits were still there (one time the window had still been unlocked from her previous visit), and shook her head. Incredibly careless, especially for someone who couldn't rely on police for protection. The Gizoid carefully replaced the glass and melted the edges back into the main mass, doing a far better job than she ever had; the seams were imperceptible. Then they left the room.

There were two more alarms to deactivate, one in the front, public gallery, and another in the back rooms, and the Gizoid handled both with as much finesse as Rouge could have wished. She quickly liberated two antique necklaces which had not yet been disassembled that she knew had rewards offered, and a handful of prime loose gems. She knew from past experience where the most valuable things were kept, and had the Gizoid open those safes but wasted no time looking among the loose stones for quality or value. Then she led the way to the front gallery, where she used a cautious flashlight to scan the 'refurbished' pieces, and took the four she liked the best. Keivens did do good work, even if he was a thief. She left in each place a small card engraved with a pink heart and the words 'Thank you' in elegant script. Then they retreated back up to the bathroom and out the window, closing it (but not, of course, locking it) behind them. Emerl reset the alarm, as he had already done with the interior ones. Chuckling with pleasure at both the haul and the success of the Gizoid, Rouge flew back to the club.

"Phew, here we are!" she said as she landed, ruffling the short tendrils of fur on the back of her head. The bonnet always made her ears itch, and while she still wore the pullover, the dark gloves and the bonnet were again hidden away.

"Amy! Amy!" crowed the Gizoid, and the bat turned to see the pink hedgehog striding up the sidewalk. She didn't have her hammer out, but she looked decidedly displeased.

"I told you to forget about–" the bat began, but stopped. Either she'd only meant to tell Emerl to forget, or the command hadn't worked; either way there was little sense in repeating it now. Besides, Amy was already upon them.

"What took you so long, _Madam_ Rouge?" asked the pink girl, with definite stress on the title.

Again, Rouge was amused by the child, although she suspected she actually meant a different word. Or else she didn't quite understand what 'madam' meant. Although Rouge knew many people believed that she sold her favors, she'd never heard of anyone accusing her of selling someone else's. And Club Rouge was a nightclub - not a strip joint, and certainly not a brothel. The two apartments above it were lived in by Rouge herself and the manager.

She eyed Amy thoughtfully, debating the best way to handle her. "How did you find this place?" she asked. It was hardly a part of town she'd expect a good little girl like Amy Rose to be familiar with.

"Just my woman's intuition, I guess."

"Oh, and does your intuition tell you that you'd better stay out of this?" returned the bat. As if to prove her point, the door to the club was shoved open and several burly, drunk humans thrust out it. One of them decided to rid himself of some of his alcohol at Amy's feet, and her expression as she jumped back was worth every bit of annoyance the bat had felt on seeing her. "I'll be here tomorrow, if you want to talk," Rouge said mildly, "but you may not want to stick around right now. Besides, what would Sonic think if he saw you here?"

"Sonic wouldn't come near this place with a ten-foot pole!" shot back the hedgehog. She looked dubiously at the splash of vomit, and then at the three drunks being 'helped' into a cab by the bouncer. Then she squared her shoulders. "Besides, I need to get Emerl back to show that I can take care of our baby!"

Rouge gave the girl credit for persistence, but signaled to the bouncer. Joe, she thought it was, although it could have been his twin, Mike. "You should know who you're dealing with here." To the man, she said, "Could you call a cab for Miss Rose please? She seems to have gotten a bit lost, and it's much too late for little girls to be out on the streets."

"Yes ma'am," said Joe (or Mike) and raised a hand to signal a cab. The other hand grasped the pink hedgehog gently but inescapably by the arm, and steered her towards the taxi stand. Amy spluttered and tried to pull free, but she had no real recourse against the massive human, and as Rouge had anticipated, she was reluctant to use her hammer against him. Smirking, the bat headed towards her private door.

"Amy! Amy!" repeated the Emerl, looking back and forth between the two dokan.

"OK," said Rouge, "let's go inside." Emerl looked back at where the unwilling hedgehog was being put into a taxi, but followed Rouge.

"Shadow, I'm back," she called. Emerl clicked and buzzed to himself, but there was no sound from the hedgehog. "Hmm, still asleep." She stepped into the den and looked him over; he appeared to be genuinely asleep, rather than the near-coma he'd been in earlier. Pulling the blanket away, she saw that the graze on his side was fully furred, vanished as if it had never been. She tucked the blanket back, but decided to leave the bandage on his arm. She wondered what he'd say if he knew about the last page she'd deciphered from Gerald's journal. From all she'd gathered, Shadow knew that he'd been designed in part to help heal Maria, but that the tests to see if he actually could help her had never been completed. On that last page, though, Professor Gerald had jubilantly announced (with handwriting worse than ever from excitement), that the tests were a success. A matter of days, only, were all that was needed to cure Maria - or so he'd thought. _A matter of days when there was only one day left_, thought Rouge sadly. _The date of that entry was the same day the Gizoid went berserk, and Gerald got yanked down planet-side to deal with that while the GUN soldiers were sent to evacuate the Space Colony ARK - and eliminate everyone connected with Project: Shadow._ She'd be the first to admit she wasn't the sentimental type, but it wasn't hard to picture Shadow's reaction to that knowledge; that the cure for his beloved Maria had been so close, and actually running through his veins, when time ran out.

She walked thoughtfully to her bedroom and removed the journal from the secret compartment in her bedside table. Opening it, she looked at the damning page a few moments, then ripped it cleanly from the binding. She nearly tore it up and threw it away, but information was power and wealth in her line of work, so instead she went to her most secure safe and slipped the folded paper into the lining of one of her jewelry boxes. Then she flipped on her computer and loaded the images from her camera, studying the containers that held both the jewelry she intended to purchase and the Chaos Emerald closely, both the 'normal light' pictures, and the special views the spy camera was capable of. Beside her computer, the shard of yellow Chaos Emerald shone and shifted. At last, she slipped out of her 'wealthy buyer' clothes and into a black bodysuit. The material was specially designed to eliminate a person's heat signature as well as absorbing light, and the matching gloves and bonnet went into the bag she'd had the gray ones in. Then she went back with the Gizoid to the training room.

Music from the club thumped through the wall as she opened a closet to bring out part two of the Gizoid's training, critical to retrieving the Chaos Emerald. "Home! Home!" cried Emerl, inexplicably.

"That's right, this is your new home now," answered the bat absently, as she pressed a sequence of buttons on a remote. Immediately, a pair of green lights lit up, just higher than her head. Emerl crowed something else, that she didn't really hear. Her attention was split between her immediate plans and the ultimate goal, that shining red gem she'd seen earlier in the day. "Yes!" she answered automatically, backing out of the closet. "Now! Finally! The ultimate treasure is all mine! OK, I'm going to train you to become the ultimate robot thief!" With a steady thump-thump, a Guard Robo stalked out of the closet. On a whim, (and to render it unrecognizable to its original owner,) she'd repainted it green, with real gold-leaf pinstriping and seven colored crystals set in a ring on its thorax, echoing the colors of the Chaos Emeralds. "Alright, let's get warmed up. Whenever you hunt for treasure, you'll always have to deal with Guard Robos. The Doctor sold these just to make extra cash on the side, under his legitimate, Robotnik Inc. brand, of course. Anyway, they can be dangerous if you don't watch out. So let's begin practicing dealing with these guys first. Why don't you fight the Guard Robo I've got here. Your goal is to defeat it five times under a time limit. Are you ready?"

Emerl did his staticy crackle again.

"Its weapons are non-lethal," added Rouge, "so this one can't hurt you, and you just need to tag it in the right places, not hit it full force. What do you say to that?"

"Play time," answered the Gizoid, clearly this time.

"Good. Now here we go!" Rouge clicked the Robo's start button and took a seat on the gym horse. She placed the bug next to her, where it wouldn't get damaged.

It took the Gizoid, with his patchwork attack style, several minutes to inactivate the other robot. Rouge reset it and told Emerl he had to take it down thirty seconds faster the second time. This time, with the addition of several of the Guard Robo's own moves, he cut the time by a whole minute. By the fifth round, he defeated his opponent by pulling two of its own moves on it in eight seconds.

Rouge gulped as she commanded the Robo back into the closet and shut it down. The speed with which Emerl learned, even though his motor and mental skills were not fully functioning, was frightening. She could well believe the danger he posed with more Chaos Emeralds. _Should I hand him over to the President now? _she wondered. _He'll probably give it to GUN, and they'll want the Gizoid for a weapon in spite of the Commander's personal preferences. So they'll probably locate the other Chaos Emeralds to power it up fully. They don't know the commands to reset him, and they probably wouldn't reset him if they could, since that would potentially make him refuse to fight, so he'd become as dangerous as Gerald feared. Our military should be more powerful than that of four thousand years ago, but that just means the Gizoid will have that much more firepower at his disposal. No_, she decided, _I'll help Sonic and Tails get the rest of the Chaos Emeralds for him, and attempt to find the code word; if the President or GUN object, I'll just tell them I thought they wanted the Gizoid in a fully functional state. And who knows, if it can feel care and compassion, it may accept the role of protector, so that it will fight to defend people even if it refuses to make the first attack._

At any rate, Emerl was watching her, waiting for his next instructions. "All right, good," she told him. "Not bad at all. OK, next is the getaway technique. Even if you've got the treasure, if you get caught, it means nothing. So try not getting hit by me for five minutes. You'll have to start all over if you get hit even once."

That one took longer than the first task against the Guard Robo, as Emerl had far more offensive moves than defensive ones. And it didn't appear to have been programmed with 'strategic retreat' in mind. But eventually Rouge got not only the idea, but several of her evasive maneuvers through that metal skull, and on the last run-through, though she had to dodge a few attacks designed to discourage pursuit, she never got near enough to Emerl to land a blow.

"Sonic," said the Gizoid softly, when she complimented him.

"You don't get it, do you? I am your master from now on! Now forget about that hedgehog." That statement was more for the benefit of the bug, adding fuel to the notion that she might steal the thing wholesale. "Don't forget the Marauve Gallery, this evening!"

"Sonic," repeated the Gizoid. She couldn't tell if the metallic voice was wistful, lonely, or what.

Shaking her head, she decided it was time for her own final warmup. "OK, after this, it'll be for real! Let's do a five-hit battle!. But if I tag you even once, you have to start all over, OK?"

That bout was shorter than she'd expected, although the Gizoid now had enough of her techniques that she could predict a lot of what he was going to do. It was usually a switch to Sonic's or Shadow's move that tagged her, although the tailless tail attack nailed her twice. It actually went to twelve hits on her, since she tagged Emerl twice herself. But he was getting frighteningly good. "Hmmph, not too bad," she finally conceded. "You're built pretty sturdy. OK! Are you ready for the real thing? Our target is that place we scouted earlier today. According to my data, they have a Chaos Emerald. When the Guard Robos show up, take care of them just as we've practiced until I get the treasure. OK, you ready?"

"Sonic," said Emerl again, as it nodded. Rouge wasn't sure what that response was supposed to mean, but took it as agreement. "Marauve Gallery, here we come!" she said as she flipped the bug back into the pouch with her jammer. Kievens was far too cheap to have Guard Robos, but she hoped the other agents wouldn't know that. She didn't alert GUN this time, if anyone was eavesdropping they might or might not go look, since the last guy had gotten caught. Although it might be interesting if they did check things out; especially if Kievens was playing the fence tonight. But right now, she had a date with a very special jewel. She checked briefly on Shadow - still asleep - and headed back to Eureka Gems with Emerl.

They'd crossed out of Night Babylon when a voice hailed them from across the street. "I knew I'd find you here!"

"Shoot," growled Rouge, recognizing the voice - and the red-clad form advancing on them. This time Amy had her hammer out, and a glint in her eye that stated that she wasn't going to be diverted again. The bat sighed. "Well I guess I'd better take care of her."

"That's it!" declared the pink hedgehog as she jumped up the curb to join them. "I'll finish you here. You won't get away with this, Rouge!"

Rouge took wing, just enough that Amy would have to jump to reach her, and ordered the Gizoid to stay put. Then she dove at the pink hedgehog. Amy seemed to be going all out, wielding her hammer at full force, but she lacked the skills that the bat had and the maneuverability. Rouge spun around her, throwing a few kicks and punches to force the girl to block them, but mainly making Amy turn, and turn again. Before long, the girl was staggering from dizziness, and ended up grabbing a 'No Parking' sign to stay on her feet. Rouge hovered, not able to make out what Amy was mumbling but fairly certain that it wasn't over yet. Sure enough, the younger girl hauled herself upright and staggered back towards the bat. Tiring of the nonsense, Rouge flicked one of her bat-bombs at the girl. As the small projectile hovered towards her, Amy swatted it with her hammer, releasing a cloud of sleeping gas. She blinked a few times and sank to the ground, still mumbling. This time Rouge caught Sonic's name.

The bat snorted as she picked the girl up. "That should keep her quiet. No wonder Sonic's so sick of her. She's just way too persistent!" They were right across the street from Amy's apartment building, she realized. She carried the sleeping hedgehog into the lobby and laid her on the couch. It was rather worn, but presumably more comfortable than the floor, and certainly safer than the street. "Well," said Rouge to Emerl, who had followed silently for a change, "she'll be fine, sleeping here. Hope I don't have to fight her again," she added as they resumed their interrupted journey. "We're almost at Eureka Gems. Our target is the Chaos Emerald in the office."

This time Rouge dealt with the alarms herself, after pulling on her special gloves and bonnet. Even the boots she was wearing tonight were designed to conceal, although she wished someone had told the manufacturer that black was actually more easily seen in shadows than dark gray, blue, or brown. Very few things in nature were truly black, so the eyes of humans and dokan tended to pick out black shapes as suspicious. But in this case, it was only infrared vision she needed to avoid, and the outfit was perfect for that. The Gizoid was her decoy for the heat-sensing vision of the Guard Robos inside. She hadn't seen them during the day, but she'd accessed the database of Robotnik Inc. and knew that the store had purchased ten top-of-the-line Guard Robos, and serviced them on a regular basis. Once she was certain the alarms were bypassed she led Emerl to the employee-only door on the side. "Now remember that technique I taught you earlier to open locks?"

Emerl looked at her, and at the door, and made his crackling noise again.

"What's the matter?" Surely the thing didn't have a conscience yet. "Just do it as I taught you."

A golden hand reached towards the door, and the fingers transmuted into lockpicks. A moment later, the bottom lock clicked, followed in short order by the two above it.

The bat grinned in delight. "There you go. See that wasn't so hard. Now, just open this, and . . ." She stepped back and let the Gizoid push the door open. A crackle of energy indicated the wisdom of her discretion, as a jolt that would probably have dropped her surged harmlessly through Emerl's casing into the ground. "All right! Thank you!" She stepped into the darkened room. Enough light came in through the barred windows and the open door to allow her eyes to see reasonably well. Dokan bats were more like the fruitbats, or flying foxes, than the multitude of _Microchiroptera_; they did not echolocate, but had excellent sight and hearing both. She was tempted to look at the fire jewelry again, but that would waste time, and stealing it would be a bit too suggestive as to a possible culprit. Besides, she wanted to wear that set, and it was distinctive enough that that would be too risky unless she purchased it legitimately. So she moved straight for the office door. Emerl moved with her, as visually adept as she was . . . but far more visible to the guards.

"Halt, intruders! Your presence is unauthorized!" Dim red lights flicked on in pairs around the room. A quick count suggested that three of the Robos were missing, either in the office or near the jewel vault, which she knew from past experience was down a narrow flight of steps. "Get them, Emerl!" she hissed, and started on the lock to the office door.

The Guard Robos were supposed to automatically broadcast an alarm signal to the local Police, but Rouge had deployed a jammer before they entered specifically to prevent that. While Emerl made short work of the Guard Robos, Rouge picked the two locks, then pulled on an insulated glove to open the door. It turned out not to be charged, as she had rather expected - too much chance of an employee accidently zapping themself - but she hadn't gotten where she was by being careless. The Chaos Emerald's case was another matter altogether, though. She glanced back at Emerl, who was clobbering the last Robo with a hammer that bore suspicious resemblance to a certain pink hedgehog's, then ducked aside as the other three robos made their entrances, two from the vault and one from the office itself. She held her breath as the latter went past, but it didn't notice her.

Leaving the robots to their battle, she slipped into the office. Several alarms were specifically linked to the Emerald's case, one to the pedestal the gem rested on itself. She disarmed the ones protecting the outside of the case, then carefully located the three concealed locks that held it closed. Breaking the case wasn't really an option; most of them nowadays were made of the same material that the space colony's windows were made of, combining complete transparency, minimal refraction and reflection, and durability enough to resist a meteorite strike. Rouge couldn't have damaged it if she'd wanted to, nor Knuckles, nor Omega. Emerl might, possibly, but only with a lot more power than he currently possessed. With a last click, the case detached, and she braced it quickly before it could fall. Carefully and slowly lifting it away, she spotted the hair-thin wire that linked it to the base - from the inside, where it couldn't be tampered with. Break that and all the work bypassing the other alarms would be wasted. "Oh, it's gorgeous," she breathed, getting a good close-up look at the Chaos Emerald. It wasn't like she hadn't seen it before - and all its companions - but the Emerald was truly a thing of beauty and worth reexamining. She glanced over her shoulder as Emerl came in behind her. "Emerl, come hold this lid for me," she directed, intending to have him hold it steady while she dealt with the Emerald and the final alarm.

Emerl walked to join her, but then froze, a strange sound coming from his speech mechanism. "What?" asked Rouge, puzzled. It wasn't the crackle he'd made before, but sounded like a language she didn't recognize.

"Chaos Emerald," said the robot, more firmly and clearly than she had ever heard him speak. The Gizoid appeared to be trembling, with eagerness or fear, although she'd never heard of a robot doing either. "A new," he said, sounding breathless, "Power."

"What? You're speaking now?" Rouge realized the Gizoid must be already drawing energy from the Chaos Emerald. As if to confirm her suspicion, the gem itself was now glowing with steadily increasing brightness. Abruptly, one of the robot's hands shot forward and grasped the stone, while the other one rendered the alarm nonfunctional. "Hey," said Rouge. "Hey! What're you doing? Hey! That's my Chaos Emerald!" The golden chest plate cracked open and she had a brief glimpse of a dimpled panel that looked like the Eclipse Cannon's with purple and white Emeralds already glowing in their sockets. The red one floated into an empty socket and the cover snapped shut. "Hey! You stole my Chaos Emerald!"

The Gizoid went motionless again, head tipped forward, blue eyes flickering like flames, or like the Emeralds themselves. Again, it spoke in an unfamiliar language, but softly, as if talking to itself.

Rouge had never heard of a robot talking to itself either, but she was too furious to care. Shoving the case lid back into place, she flipped one latch to hold it and turned her full attention to the metal thief beside her. Slapping him on his chest, she repeated, "Hey! Give me back my Chaos Emerald!"

"Skayatin tekeir nalan. To beetos laketh slet beetos lakenth. Tralsenten reemat nickto." Suddenly the eyes flared, and Emerl brought his head up and around sharply, twisting his neck to a degree not possible for most vertebrates. "He's coming! He's coming!"

"Who's coming?" Rouge was still furious, but caution remained. Had the police been alerted? She ran for the exit, not caring if she left that underhanded robot behind.

Emerl ran right with her, though. "Sonic! It's Sonic!" he crowed, with what sounded like genuine delight. There was more inflection and depth to his voice now; although clearly robotic, it was equally clear that this was not the voice of a mindless automaton.

As they left the alley beside the jewelry store, the bat dropping into her usual saunter and stripping off dark gloves and bonnet, the blue hedgehog appeared at the corner.

"Emerl!" exclaimed Sonic.

"Sonic!"

"Sonic!" echoed Rouge. "How did you find us?"

The blue hero laughed. "A wild guess! A hedgehog's hunch!" _The feel of Chaos Emeralds_, guessed Rouge silently.

"Sonic, good to see you! Sonic, good to see you!" Emerl might be talking more eloquently, but he still tended to parrot himself.

"So, Rouge," Sonic leaned negligently against a lamppost, "what were you planning to do with him? If you've done something bad with him, I won't let you off easy!"

"And now why would I want to do such a thing?" countered Rouge. "I thought we'd agreed to get all the Chaos Emeralds, so we could reset him. Don't tell me now you've changed your mind? I'll have that Emerald back then." She stepped towards Emerl, reaching for his chest plate.

"Sonic!" She paused at the chorus, and spotted Tails and Knuckles jogging up the street. She really needed to get gone; the sky was rapidly paling towards the east.

"Sonic," echoed Emerl, "let's play more! Play more!"

"Hey, stop it!" Sonic could hardly not be distracted, as Emerl pulled out a hammer and swung it in his direction. Then the robot followed with one of Rouge's kicks. Sonic dodged both, then put on a serious expression that made the bat want to laugh. "This is serious!" he warned the robot.

Emerl stopped, cocking his head. "Serious?"

"That's right," replied the blue hedgehog firmly.

"Serious talk!" announced Emerl. "Let me join you! Play time! Play time!" He pounced on Sonic again, grabbing him and trying to throw him.

"Hey, Emerl, stop it!" Sonic twisted away, but he was laughing, his serious manner discarded. He began wrestling with the Gizoid, forgetting whatever he'd been going to discuss with Rouge.

"Oh that's it!" growled the bat. "I give up! You can have the Chaos Emerald; he already has it anyway. Sheesh, what kind of a mess have I gotten myself into?"

"Hey, stop pulling my quills, Emerl!" Sonic didn't seem to have heard her.

A sudden vindictive urge inspired Rouge to say, loudly, "Boy, this is ridiculous. That's why I'm only interested in jewelry. I'd never want to be a _mom_ like that girl."

That got Sonic's attention a moment, despite the robot tugging on his ears. "What girl?" Tails and Knuckles had already gotten the reference, and were snickering together.

Rouge didn't answer, taking to the air instead. "Good luck with everything, _daddy_!"

"Daddy?" But the bat had already left.


	11. Powering up a Weapon

10. Powering Up a Weapon

Rouge returned to her apartment to find Shadow still asleep on the couch. She watched him a few moments, thinking that he looked even more like Sonic asleep, with his usual stern expression relaxed. She tried to picture him gold-furred instead of black with red accents, but couldn't quite manage. Then she shook her head sharply. _I __**must**__ be tired. Doesn't matter what color Gerald meant him to be - and there's no guarantee he'd have gotten it anyway - Shadow is what he is. I'm going to bed._

She did exactly that. She was a light enough sleeper that she'd waken if she heard an unfamiliar noise, so she wasn't concerned about Shadow sneaking out before she had a chance to talk to him. Not that it mattered anyway; when she got up about noon, the black hedgehog was still out like a light. "I'm going to have to charge you rent, pretty soon," she commented to him softly. She got herself lunch, not being particularly quiet, but he slept on, and continued to do so when she unwrapped his arm. The injury to it was gone as completely as the mark on his side. Shaking her head, she went back into her room. Pausing beside her desk, she lifted the golden Emerald shard from its place of honor and admired it, turning it in her hands for several long minutes. _I wonder, do I really feel the power in it, or am I just imagining something I know is there, but intangible? _Sighing, she put the gem fragment back and turned on the computer.

She'd left a trace to run the night before, searching for any reference to the missing Chaos Emeralds. Purple and white she'd seen the night before, in the Gizoid's possession, and yellow she knew the Doctor had, so she eliminated those results and any prior to the Black Arms invasion and began skimming those that remained. It was a very short list. The green one had not been seen, and she wasn't certain if both of the blues had; not everyone distinguished between the true blue and the light blue gems, but _a_ blue Chaos Emerald had been found in Soleanna, and then stolen by robots. The images with the news reports - to her utter lack of surprise - clearly showed the mechs in question to be Egg pawns. _Hmm. Perhaps I'd better pay a little visit to this 'Gimme Shelter' of Eggman's. Even if I don't find the Chaos Emerald, it's a lot easier to access one of his computers in person, and there may be some useful info on the Gizoid, or various other items._ A bit more poking revealed strong evidence that the Doctor was currently pretending to be a law-abiding businessman at his Robotnik Inc. facility, so she didn't need to worry about interruptions of the organic variety. She retrieved a couple of gadgets from her shielded drawer and set out into the afternoon light.

Gliding along at rooftop level, she noted once again that people rarely looked up. Not one of the humans or occasional dokan below her glanced up to see her, even when she deliberately let her shadow pass over a couple of them. As she neared her destination she left off such games, taking care not to be seen even if someone should glance skyward. Only when she had turned into the alley did she descend below second-story level, landing neatly on the low step by the Gimme Shelter door. Pulling out one of the devices she'd brought from home, she waved it in front of the door, then hung it around her neck by its attached strap. Recognizing the electronic signature of one of the Doctor's robots, the door obligingly raised itself, granting the bat entry into the base. That particular trick she had learned from Omega, when the robot had requested assistance in altering his own signature. Doctor Eggman was intelligent enough that he had banned Omega's original code after the robot had rebelled against him, but it was not possible to ban any code the robot might use - not while still allowing the thousands of obedient robots to move as ordered. So Rouge had consulted with a military contact and gotten Omega a variable code emitter that he could change at will, and herself one that replicated one of the evil genius's scads of Egg pawns - or more accurately, a lot of Egg pawns, since there only appeared to be two dozen identity codes for the hundreds of pawns.

Once in the base, she moved up to the ceiling again. There were plenty of pipes and conduits running along it to cling to, and Eggman had not programmed his robots to look up any more than most pedestrians did. So she traveled along upside down (which was no great hardship for her), working her way above the occasional patrolling guard until she reached the main computer room. The computer was a bit of a surprise; either the Doctor had salvaged the mother computer from his shattered battleship after the Metal Sonic fight, or one of these was a duplicate of the other. However the external appearance wasn't what she was interested in, and she quickly started cracking her way into it.

Security was the first order of business, and the bat told the computer that she was Doctor Ivo Robotnik and ordered the room's door closed and privacy-locked. That done, no robots could wander in and notice that their boss had not only shrunk considerably, but changed species and gender. Next, she went hunting for word of Chaos Emeralds, and discovered that there were - or had been- a total of thirty Phi units made, half of which had been activated with a Chaos Emerald shard. A few others were running on Chaos drive power, although at considerably reduced efficiency. Still, considering that the original Gizoid needed an entire Chaos Emerald to function at all, and two to be at a reasonable efficiency, it was clear that Eggman had improved on the original power design. The skill capture and durability were not as successful, and she noted that the one she had beheaded outside Cental Lab was listed as 'Under study' while the scientist worked on improving it. One of the shard-powered ones remained in Gimme Shelter, and the remainder were listed as out in the city. The unpowered were still in storage, and the Chaos drive-driven at the Robotnik Inc. Headquarters, being studied as potential house-robots. She assumed the local Phis were looking for Chaos Emeralds and/or Emerl. The fifteen shards had come from three Emeralds: yellow, blue, and cyan; fitted numerically into the robots, such that Phi 1 through Phi 5 had yellow shards, Phis 6 through 10 had cyan, and 11 through15 the true blue. Rouge nodded._ So he has got both the light and darker blue gems. But how did he break them?_ A bit more hunting provided the answer: with great difficulty. Eggman had concluded that since the Master Emerald could be broken, with each shard retaining some power, the Chaos Emeralds should function similarly. However, breaking the Emeralds proved far more difficult than he'd anticipated. He'd actually been working on it before the Black Arms invasion, but it wasn't until a few days ago that he'd managed to accomplish the feat. He'd been experimenting with a new machine designed to cleave each Emerald into five pieces, when abruptly there had been some sort of power drain on the stones. It had lasted a fraction of a second - but the machine had already been exerting maximum force, and when the power flickered the gems shattered. Rouge had a nasty suspicion that she knew where– _yep, that laboratory is half a mile from where Shadow was knocked out by the big meteorite. So it's his fault that the Emeralds got smashed, and their fault that he did._ Laying that matter aside, she looked for files related to the Gizoid.

The first thing she pulled up was peculiar. It was a copy of an e-mail that someone had sent anonymously, offering to purchase the Gizoid from Eggman. Obviously someone had known that he had it. The Doctor had appended a few sentences of his own to the file: _Attempted to trace back to original author. Originating address is registered to a 'Nocturne' - whether person or corporation cannot be determined. Attempts to trace back further all ended in failure. After not responding as directed, no further communications received._

Rouge frowned. 'Nocturne' was a type of music, she thought, and she knew it was an alcoholic drink as well. The name meant no more to her than it apparently did to the Doctor, but she made a mental note of it. Moving on she found a repeat of the Phi information, under 'Gizoid Replicas', and skipped over it. _Aha! _The next file described how the Doctor had found the golden robot in the first place. While looking for inspiration in the original, long-since-closed Robotnik Inc. building, he had found a shipping crate sent to his father from Prison Island. Although it had been recorded as containing returned parts, when he'd opened it he had found an old robot and a computer disk. The robot had been transferred to one of his bases and essentially forgotten again, because the disk described the great, last, secret weapon of Professor Gerald Robotnik, hidden on Prison Island. _And that's where I came into the story._ The weapon, of course, was Shadow. After the resulting rediscovery of the Space Colony ARK and the Eclipse cannon, and the setting off of Professor Gerald's doomsday plot (and subsequent loss of Shadow), the Gizoid had been looked at again. Eggman had attempted to download its memory with the same degree of success (or lack thereof) as Gerald and Tails had had, then changed tactics and copied and adapted its physical structures instead.

Rouge paused her research to try and locate the battle data he'd managed to recover from the overloaded computers crashed by the Gizoid, but apparently the Doctor had already removed that information to an offline computer. _Doctor Eggman with ancient and exotic weapons made by a people who had space travel and the technology to manipulate Chaos Emeralds four thousand years ago? My boss is going to flip when he hears that. Not to mention the GUN higher-ups._ The bat tapped a gloved finger impatiently alongside the keyboard. Finally she shrugged and moved on. _If the computer with the information isn't accessible, I can't copy or delete it. Hmm, what next? Oh, what about that red Guard Robo?_

E-102 Gamma turned out to be one of the earliest of Eggman's E-series robots, which had culminated with E-123 Omega. The first Phi, E-121, had actually been created before Omega, but as the attempt to power it with a Chaos drive had not worked well, it had been shelved at that time. The earliest E-series robots had apparently been the last of the Doctor's robots to be powered with small animals, except for a specific group of Egg pawns. _Huh? How do you power a robot with an animal - put in a little treadmill? No, this says that Gamma, and the other early E's contained Flickies which were related, and that was why Gamma 'failed'. You can't run a bird in a treadmill. _Rouge pondered a moment. Flickies were small birds that came in a rainbow of colors and were rumored to be able to travel between dimensions. But apparently other animals - frogs, rabbits, mice, and more - had been used as well, not only for the E-series but in older robots the Doctor had used to try to take over several islands in the southern, dokan-governed lands. _I wonder what powers Omega?_ Later E-series robots had been largely Chaos drive-powered, as most of the GUN robots and Robotnik commercial robots were, but she guessed that Omega, given the special criteria of his construction, must be powered by something that couldn't be affected by Shadow's Chaos powers.

At any rate, Gamma itself may have failed, but the design was modified to run on Chaos drives and mass produced as Robotnik Inc. Guard Robo XGR102, gray or painted with whatever livery the buyer desired. Also a number of the original (red) parts and intended spares had been reused, trying to run a robot on either Chaos drives or a Chaos Emerald shard. The Doctor had also been researching several other mythical power stones, such as the Time Stones, but had been unable to locate any. Rouge snorted. _That's what mythical means, Doc. They don't exist._ She'd had a look for some of them herself - the Atlantean Rubies, the five-colored Xanadu Diamond, the Black Opal of Ghertis Cahn. The Julian Topaz, a deep golden stone, was the only one whose existence she ever truly found proof of, and _that_ stone held pride of place in her most secure safe. (Julius the Just was traditionally the first dokan king after the old racial-tribal system had been abandoned, but he was now considered largely apocryphal. But the giant topaz that legend had mounted in his crown was anything but, as the bat had proved, though no one else knew what had become of it.)

A noise from the door interrupted her daydreaming about her secret prize, and Rouge spun to see one of the Phi robots walking through the supposedly locked door. A small numeral 8 was embossed on the chest plate beside its identifying Apatosian letter 'Φ'.

"You are not Doctor Eggman," it informed her. "You are an intruder and must be eliminated." Then it bent over in a crouch and did a spindash at her. Rouge vaulted out of the chair and up into the pipes running along the ceiling, then scrambled hurriedly sideways as the robot made a midair spindash that sliced through the pipe she'd initially caught hold of. As steam and a greenish fluid began gushing from the damaged pipe, she dove out the door right before it closed automatically.

_Another spindashing robot! Do all these things think they're Sonic the Hedgehog? _Abruptly she felt her fur stand on end along her left side and flung herself to the right, and the robot appeared in a flash of pink light. A metal hand lifted, and suddenly a spear of glowing light was flying towards her. _I guess this one thinks it's __**Shadow**__ the Hedgehog_, she corrected herself. "All right then," she said to the robot, "let's see what you've got."

In response the robot skated rapidly towards her, small jets of fire appearing below its hovering feet. Recalling the first battle, she took wing and aimed a kick at the robot's chin. It braked before she made contact, snapping its fingers and generating a ball of glowing Chaos energy that floated toward her. Rouge dodged, but it followed her, as the robot stood and tracked her with its glassy black eyes. Unnerved, she pitched one of her bat-bombs at the orb, and one or both exploded, resulting in the mutual destruction of orb and bomb. The robot vanished in a flash of Chaos energy and reappeared midair beside her, lashing out with a foot as it started to drop back down. Rouge blocked the kick and retaliated with one of her own, this time striking the robot's nonexistent nose and knocking its head back, but either it was better constructed than the last one or the Doctor had already made revisions, because nothing broke. A pair of patrolling Egg pawns marched around the corner, and stopped, whether because the Phi was already dealing with the intruder or because their programming didn't cover interrupting a fight between an intruder and another robot, Rouge didn't know.

Nor did she wait to find out. She veered towards the newcomers, snatching a lance from one and stabbing it at the Phi. The Phi blocked the spear and hurled a Chaos spear back at her. She dodged into the air again, pulling a second bat bomb out, and flicking on the magnetic clamp. Diving at the Phi, she slapped the bomb against its back as she swooped past. Phi repeated its spindash and then tried a homing attack. She avoided both, and was relieved to see that neither had knocked the bomb loose. Then it exploded, and the robot's chest plate flew open. While its arms flailed about randomly, she dropped to land beside it and reached up through the neck to claim the shard whose light she could see leaking into the chest cavity. The robot went still as she ripped its power source free, but the cessation of its movement triggered the other two guards to attack. Rouge's steel-toed boots put debilitating dents into _their_ casings quite nicely, and she fled the base with a cyan shard in hand.

"Whew," she muttered to herself, when she paused several blocks away, "That was certainly a tougher Phi than the first one. But this beauty . . ." she turned the pale blue shard in her hand, admiring the aquamarine tint as it shifted towards green and then back, "this is worth any trouble." She sighed and tucked it away. "Pity I'll have to hand it over to power the Gizoid. I wonder, will it need ALL the shards to work, or can it get by with one missing?" She looked up as the sound of colliding metal suddenly registered in her sensitive ears. She glanced up and down the street half-expecting to see a car crash, while listening intently. There, more banging, and some decidedly non-robotic grunts and exclamations. _That's Knuckles, fighting something_, she realized, and set off up the street to the closest corner.

The fight was actually several blocks away, once she turned the corner, and she glided the distance because it was less energy-intensive than walking. She landed on a second-floor balcony, overlooking a battle between the red robot that wasn't E-102 Gamma, and the Gizoid and Knuckles the Echidna. She had actually missed the fight; even as she got settled, Knuckles landed one last spike-fisted punch that sent the red robot weaving away in the direction of the Gimme Shelter. Mildly disappointed, Rouge rested her chin on her hands, listening intently.

"I can't imagine what's gotten into Gamma," the echidna was saying to the Gizoid, "I mean, I was never particularly friends with it, but Amy was, and it was never aggressive to us after that - it just wanted to destroy the other robots that had trapped its family." The red brow furrowed a moment, as Knuckles scratched his head. "Or something like that," he concluded. "Oh well, at least it's gone. Even when you were with Tails, it looked like it was after you."

"It is," called Rouge from her perch.

The echidna nearly jumped out of his skin. "Rouge?!" he called, looking around twice before looking up enough to spot her on the balcony. He walked over to stand beneath her.

Emerl followed. "Hello! Where the heck have you been?"

Rouge raised her eyebrows, and looked at Knuckles. "Looks like your little baby has got quite a mouth on him."

The echidna flushed. "Hey it's not me! Blame Sonic!"

The bat snorted. "Quick to blame others, as usual, I see."

Knuckles opened his mouth but his retort was interrupted by Emerl. "Hey it's not me!" the robot echoed gleefully, "Blame Sonic!"

Knuckles turned even redder. "All right, all right," he mumbled, looking away. "I'll be more careful."

Rouge smirked, and winked at Emerl, who tilted his head in a manner reminiscent of the fox boy. She cleared her face as Knuckles looked back up, and told him, "That robot you just fought probably isn't the robot you guys know as Gamma."

"What?!" demanded the echidna.

"Doctor Eggman has been experimenting with using Chaos Emeralds on robot cores," the white bat explained. She carefully omitted the shards, not wanting to give away all her information at once, certainly not _gratis_. But if Knuckles and the others kept trying to be friendly with this Gamma look-alike, it might just manage to recover Emerl for the Doctor, and that would be a nuisance. So she gave Knuckles some edited advice for free, knowing he'd pass it on to Sonic and Tails. "He used a bunch of old parts to create guinea pigs for his experiments. That robot probably just has parts that you recognize."

Knuckles frowned, rubbing his chin. Then he looked at his companion, who was crouched down and poking an anthill with a very unrobotic air of curiosity. He looked back to Rouge. "Even if it's someone else . . . . Why is it after Emerl?"

"Well," Rouge thought fast and came up with a lie on the spot. "Emerl took the Chaos Emerald that Doctor Eggman was using for his experiments. I think he wants revenge or something. I mean, Chaos Emeralds are very powerful. I sorta understand how he feels." Knuckles looked at Emerl again. "Well then, you boys be careful out there, okay?" Rouge flipped off the balcony and up to the roof, ducking behind a dormer while the echidna was still looking away.

"That might explain why it seemed like that robot wasn't trying," the echidna started, then looked up at the now empty balcony. "Huh? Where'd she go? And what was she doing here, anyway?" There was a pause, and Rouge pictured him scratching his head again while he tried to think fast. "Hey, Emerl!" he called, and she peeked around the dormer edge to see the robot was wandering off. "You'd better be careful! I don't think they've given up on trying to take you back yet!"

The robot looked back curiously for a moment, then replied, "Gotcha! You'd better watch yourself, too!"

"R-right," responded the echidna, a bit weakly. Rouge watched them leave, heading towards the midtown shopping areas, which had been spared from the blast that took out the Presidential Mansion, and most of the rest of the Black Arms' destruction. Unlike the utter devastation of Westopolis, the attack on Central City had been largely symbolic; the Mansion and its immediate surroundings had been destroyed, but fortunately most of the major museums and the Senatary Rotunda were outside the range of the blast. In fact, the President had set himself up in one of the museums, which had a display replicating the Presidential Office and its wing, while the Mansion itself was being rebuilt. _Although, had the museums been hit, think what I might have recovered from the wreckage_, she thought wistfully. She shook her head and returned to the club, checking in briefly with the manager before going up to her rooms. Shadow had moved, at least; the blanket she'd tossed over him was now mostly on the floor, and he had the top of his head ducked against the back of the couch. She picked the blanket up and replaced it over him. She pulled out her new Chaos shard and he stirred uncomfortably, shaking his head slightly and then raising a hand to cover his visible ear.

Intrigued, Rouge backed up, then moved to stand by her door, and watched him settle again, although now he was frowning in his sleep. She matched his frown with her own as she stepped into her room, shutting the door as if it would block the Chaos energy from disturbing him. She laid the pale blue shard on the display cushion that held the yellow one, and flipped on her computer. An email from one of the GUN officers, informed her that Sam Garret, the faux janitor who'd been spying on her, was actually a private with GUN and was, it had been discovered, active in the PAH. He was now being held for court-martial, accused of moonlighting without permission for an organization that was not only unapproved but bordered on illegal. "People Are Human," said Rouge softly, with disgust. She knew about PAH - all the dokan north of the equator knew about the group, because it was a possible threat to them, although most of the members were utterly ineffectual and more given to complaining among themselves than actually attacking their alleged 'enemies'. As the name suggested, much of the group believed that only humans were 'people', and the dokan were merely animals, and so should be restricted to reserves or zoos and their land taken over by humans. A second, more dangerous faction was convinced that the dokan were plotting against 'real' people and would eventually kill all humans unless the humans killed them first. It certainly made sense that the group would object to the President's favorite spy being dokan. Although why they should want to plant a bug on her was beyond her, unless they were hoping for evidence to use against her.

Her phone chirped, and she reached over to hit the intercom button. "Rouge here."

"Miss Rouge, there is a, ah, a yellow robot here to see you," the manager's tone was exceedingly perplexed. ("Hey, man, lemme in," said Emerl in the background.)

Rouge grinned. Boris was an excellent manager for the club, but he didn't adapt well to unexpected problems, such as robots strolling in to ask for the owner. "I'll be down– no, on second thought, tell him to come on up."

"Yes, miss." He clicked off.

A couple of minutes later she met Emerl at the door, and he challenged her to a sparring match. She led him to the training room, and they squared off.

"Ha! You rustbucket, I'll tear you apart!" proclaimed the Gizoid, enthusiastically if not very appropriately.

"Shouldn't that be my line?" she asked him, just as Knuckles yanked open the door. An irritated-looking Boris was behind him.

"Emerl! What are you doing?" exclaimed the echidna, as Rouge waved a hand at Boris, telling him to stand down. He mouthed 'no cover' at her, and left at her nod of comprehension.

Unfortunately, Emerl took advantage of her moment of distraction to start the match, striking with a roundhouse punch that had very often done Knuckles proud. Rouge managed to roll with it, tumbling in a back somersault and rising to her feet again to snap a kick at the Gizoid's chin. Since he hadn't seen the somersault before, he didn't check his forward motion, and his momentum and her kick resulted in a blow that would probably have beheaded even the second Phi she'd fought. The original was made of sterner stuff than the copies, and she didn't even dent him. She did manage to knock him back a step, though, and used the chance to get clear.

"I am invincible!" declared the Gizoid, although whether in answer to Knuckles or challenge to her wasn't certain.

"Emerl!" snapped Knuckles again.

Emerl stopped abruptly, as if just noticing the echidna. "Hey Knuckles! I've been lookin' all over for ya!"

"I'VE been looking for YOU! Let's go!" But the red dokan's attempted exit was blocked by Rouge's hand on his chest. He jumped back as if burned.

"I suppose you think echidnas are special and you don't have to pay the entrance fee?" she asked, raising an eyebrow at him. She didn't actually expect him to pay the cover charge; she doubted he had any money. But it was the principle of the thing.

"Rouge!" Knuckles fumbled a moment then opted to go with a verbal attack. "What're you planning to do with Emerl!?"

Rouge hmmphed at him. "How rude." She stepped over and draped an arm over the golden robot's shoulders. "Emerl came to me. He probably missed me." She turned her back on Knuckles and looked the Gizoid up and down. "My, you've grown strong." She glanced slyly over her shoulder and cooed, "Gives me goosebumps just thinking about it."

Knuckles actually ground his teeth; she could hear the grating noise from where she stood. "So much confidence," he muttered.

The bat laughed, and guided Emerl over to the echidna, looping her other arm around Knuckles before he could escape and steering both out into the hall. Boris was waiting against the wall, arms folded. Just then the door to the stairs was blasted open, making everyone jump.

"W-who the heck are you!?" demanded Boris, who was closest to the stairs. A silver form stepped through the smoke and shot him, sending him to the floor with a cry of pain.

"Located! Located!" exclaimed an unfamiliar voice.

"Is that . . . Phi?" Rouge blinked to clear the afterimages of the explosion. Sure enough the robot resembled Emerl except for the small letter phi on its left breast, and the number 3 beneath it.

"What!?" Knuckles sounded confused. "It looks just like Emerl. That must be why those shopkeepers kept siccing their Guard Robos on us! Time for some payback! All right, Emerl, let's do this!" One large fist raised, she echidna plunged towards the intruder, just as a second one appeared in the doorway

"All right!" cheered Emerl, surging forward as well. "Let's blow this taco stand!"

"Those two are sounding more and more alike," muttered Rouge, as she bent to check on Boris. A steady stream of profanity made it clear that he was very much alive, and after verifying that he'd only been hit in the leg, she managed to haul him up and into her apartment. She snatched the first aid kit off the end table by Shadow and tossed it to the human as she looked back out into the hall. These Phi, for a change, didn't seem to think they were hedgehogs. Phi #3 was doing the tailless tail attack that had puzzled her when Emerl had used it, and now she could see it was somehow generating a sort of force tail, or rather a pair of them, that vanished again after each attack. It also produced a variety of weapons, some of which she recognized as being made by Tails, and some of which she'd never seen before. The other, which had a 2 on its chest, opened a pair of nearly invisible force-wings, and flew over the others' heads towards Rouge. The bat rose to meet it, and now had the unusual experience of fighting herself.

Neither Rouge nor Phi #2 could maneuver very well; the hall was designed as walkway to the apartments, not a fighting arena. So as if by mutual agreement, they dropped and closed on foot, Rouge facing off with her steel-toed boots against an opponent with literal steel toes. Kick, block, dodge, every move exactly matched by the robot, not mirrored, as a normal opponent would, but copied exactly.

Knuckles and Emerl were also having trouble in the close quarters of the hall, until the Phi for some reason tried to replicate Tails' tailicopter move. That was a very bad choice, as it raised the silver robot to a level where both of its opponents could strike without interfering with each other. Emerl fired a silly gun that launched a boxing glove on a spring, which slammed the other robot into the wall, and Knuckles landed a punch that caved in the silver thorax. The Phi made an odd electronic squeal, then went silent in a shower of sparks. Knuckles now discovered that his namesakes were caught in the metal plating. Planting a foot on the crushed chest, he ripped his spikes free, and yellow light shone through the holes.

"It's going to explode!" shouted the echidna, jumping back. He collided with Phi #2, knocking it off balance and right into Rouge's jump kick. As the robot staggered back towards Knuckles, he slammed it in the head and sent it down for the count as well. "Ha!" he declared triumphantly, "Nothing's better than the real thing!"

"Shard! Shard!" shouted Emerl excitedly, jumping up and down beside Phi #3.

"Shard?" echoed Knuckles, turning towards him.

"There! There!" Holding something on one hand that glowed with yellow light, Emerl pointed at Phi #2, then grabbed the fallen enemy by its horns and shook it sharply. A second yellow shard tumbled out of the damaged head.

Knuckles blinked at the glowing fragment of crystal, then bent to pick it up. Cupping it in one mitten-like glove, he examined it and then looked to Rouge in puzzlement. "This thing fell out of Phi," he started.

"Phi is powered by Chaos Emerald shards," Rouge agreed. Making a quick decision, she told him, "I've actually got one, too." She ducked through her apartment into her room and retrieved the yellow shard. Stepping back out she handed it to the golden robot. "Here, take it."

"Thank you very much!" said Emerl. "Looks like you've got a use after all!"

Rouge gaped at the robot a moment. "Well I never!" She glared at Knuckles. "How exactly are you raising him, anyway?"

The echidna's face had gone as red as his fur, although she had a strong suspicion he was trying not to laugh. "S-sorry," he stammered.

She glowered at them both for another moment, then flicked her hands at them in a dismissive gesture. "I've got no use for a measly shard. I'll collect on this debt some other day by taking your Master Emerald."

That killed any hint of laughter from the echidna. "You wish!" he bristled at her.

Rouge grinned. He was so easy to manipulate - you just didn't give him time to think. "Hah! Are you forgetting that I'm the world's greatest thief? But perhaps you should ask your little fox friend what he knows about the shards. I've already seen Emerl absorb a Chaos Emerald, perhaps he can make use of these too, in some way."

"Good point," admitted the echidna grudgingly. "We should go back and talk to Tails about this."

"Come back to Club Rouge any time, boys!" She winked and fluttered a hand at them.

"No thanks!" said Knuckles firmly, and marched down the stairs, dragging Emerl with him. Rouge's laughter followed them.


	12. Testing a Weapon

11. Testing a Weapon

Knuckles the Echidna stomped through the streets of Emerald Town. The little suburb was peaceful in the late afternoon light, but Knuckles was not._ She did it to me AGAIN! WHY does she have to . . . ? _But he knew why: she had to tease and embarrass him because that was what Rouge the Bat did, and he was, unfortunately, an excellent victim. He growled and raised a clenched fist, wishing that she were there so that he could whack her, although he knew perfectly well that he'd do no such thing, even if he could. Unless she actually did threaten the Master Emerald, he couldn't do much more than bluff and grumble, because he possessed an incongruous streak of chivalry that simply wouldn't let him attack a female without significant cause. And flirting didn't qualify, however much it made him squirm. "I should teach her that Knuckles doesn't mess around," he growled, then sighed. It wouldn't have been quite as bad if Sonic didn't insist on teasing him about it. Tails, at least, was young enough to miss half of the bat's innuendo, and Knuckles had a feeling he was missing a certain amount himself. _Comes of being raised by a bunch of chao and old dead guys_, he supposed. _I wonder how Shadow manages with her? I'll bet old Gerald didn't include much on dating in his programming. _ Still, Shadow was a much faster thinker than Knuckles was, which was half the echidna's problem. Rouge didn't ever give him a chance to think! He'd learned (_finally_, Sonic would say) not to jump to conclusions so fast, but she skipped from taunt to helpful to tease so fast it made his head spin.

"Knuckles! We're here!"

"Huh?" He blinked over at Emerl, who had grabbed his arm. "Oh, we are." They were in front of Tails' Lab, and he had nearly walked past it. He jogged up the walk after Emerl who'd already done a Sonic-style sprint. He waited for Knuckles to actually open the door though. "Tails!" the echidna called. "We're back!"

There was a rustling noise and the little fox backed out of a cabinet, dragging a piece of fabric. "Hey, Knuckles! Emerl! Welcome back!" His hands were full, but he waved his tails in greeting as he piled the material on top of a workspace.

"I'm home, Tails!" cried Emerl, then folded his arms and looked sternly at the fox. "Have you been a good boy?"

Tails laughed, and answered, "Yup! How about you? Were you a good boy?"

"Heck yeah!" replied the robot proudly, rasing a fist.

"Knuckles!" The cub cupped a hand over his mouth. "What've you been teaching him!?" He looked at the robot, who had lifted a table by one leg and was looking at the bottom of it. "Looks like he's gotten a lot stronger." He muttered the last part - "But it looks like he's not getting much smarter." - but Knuckles heard him and bristled.

"Look, I was careful around him. Right Emerl?"

"Heck yeah! Knuckles doesn't mess around!" Knuckles groaned - when _would_ he learn to watch his mouth? Thinking out loud was a habit he'd gotten into on Angel Island, where the chao didn't care what he said. It was a hard one to curb when he ended up around people.

"Knuckles!!"

Not wanting a lecture from a cub half his age, Knuckles changed the subject hurriedly. "H-hey, that reminds me!" He fumbled for the yellow Chaos Emerald shard.

"What?" asked Tails skeptically.

"We found this!" He held his shard out, and Emerl dropped the table with a crash and hurried over to hold out his two shards as well.

"That's a Chaos Emerald!" Tails reached a hand towards the glowing crystal, touching it lightly with one gloved finger.

"Well, a shard of one," agreed Knuckles.

"Let me see it." Tails glanced up for permission, then took his shard, inspecting it closely. Then he took Emerl's two shards and compared them to the first, holding a little gadget over them and staring up at his computer monitor. "If you could get two more shards of the same color, you could probably form a whole Emerald," he said thoughtfully.

"Two more, huh? Rouge said that the fake Emerls all had shards."

"That's it!" Tails typed something rapidly into his computer and the screen zoomed in on several glowing dots, then opened small windows beneath them, showing stop motion footage of several of the silver Emerls. "The fake Emerls are all powered by Emerald shards!" He had the air of someone who'd just worked out a problem, and Knuckles was pleased to have helped _solve_ one, for a change.

"Yeah," he added, remembering what Rouge had said and suddenly realizing how two and two fit together. "Eggman tried to copy Emerl's technology." Emerl ran on Chaos Emeralds and Eggman experimenting with Emerald shards powering robots; even if Emerl hadn't stolen an Emerald from him, Eggman had good reason to want to track him down.

"Hmm," said Tails. "And knowing him, he's probably going to come and try to take Emerl back!"

Knuckles grinned; here was a way he could definitely help, and show Sonic that the hedgehog wasn't the only hero in town. "All right, Emerl! Time to train!" No one knew fighting like Knuckles, and if a lot of his techniques were ancient echidnan martial arts, that meant no one alive was likely to know the countermoves, except Knuckles himself. He could certainly teach Emerl to defend himself against the phonies. "Come with me to the beach," he told the robot. "I'll make you strong enough to beat Eggman!" He headed for the door. There was no room in the lab for the sort of training he had in mind.

"Hey!" hollered the robot behind him. "Whaddya think you're doing! Don't go running in front of me!"

Tails shook his head as the door slammed behind the robot. "Nope, he's not getting smarter at all. . . ."

Knuckles picked himself up, brushing sand out of his fur. "Okay Emerl," he said, getting into fighting stance again. "I've been holding back up until now. But there's no excuse for me losing, even if I was holding back. It's about time we settle this once and for all! A no-holds-barred battle!"

It was, actually, a novel experience for Knuckles, fighting against a real opponent using echidnan techniques. He'd learned the skills himself from his dream guides, and practiced them on his own against dummies, or the phantoms that the Master Emerald produced, but the dummies didn't fight back and the phantoms - typically Sonic, or later Shadow - used the same techniques as their originals. So having his own moves turned against him was a challenge that positively thrilled the red Guardian. The downside of this was that he didn't really have very good counters to a lot of the moves; although he had been taught those as well, without someone to use the attacks against him, his timing tended to be off, and the robot somehow managed to duplicate those moves better than Knuckles could perform them himself. Which meant it could block his attacks as precisely as he could attack, and attack him back with the same precision, while he couldn't block those attacks effectively. Which was annoying, but not enough so to counter the excitement of having a genuine opponent at last. And Knuckles _had_ been holding back some, remembering how easily the silver robots with their I-on-O marks had been smashed, but clearly Emerl was much better constructed, despite his age. So the Guardian curled his massive fists and sailed back into battle.

Emerl planted his metal feet and crouched slightly, catching Knuckles' fists as he approached and sliding sideways, letting the echidna's momentum carry him past. This time, however, Knuckles twisted himself, pulling a tight U-turn. He only half hit the robot, but at least he didn't end up face first in the sand again. And since it was a new technique - as far as Knuckles knew, he'd just invented it - Emerl wasn't expecting it either, and actually sat down himself. Knuckles lowered a foot to use as a pivot, and channeled the momentum of his glide through a fist a complete one hundred-eighty degrees to slam against the Gizoid's head. Emerl's eyes flickered and the golden form fell flat on the sand. Smiling grimly, Knuckles planted his fists on his hips and waited. A few moments later, the lights behind the blue optics flashed on again and Emerl jumped to his feet. "Not too shabby, but you're not gonna get past my guard again!" the robot declared. "Bring it on!" The echidna grunted acknowledgement, and considered a moment, then mentally reached for the Master Emerald. Suddenly he dropped, pounding a fist into the ground. He wasn't sure how well it would work this far from Angel Island, but he managed to raise a surge of sand. As Emerl flinched back, raising his arms to shield his face, the scarlet foe drove a spiked punch into his ribs, or what would have been ribs if robots had such things. Emerl retaliated by slamming his raised forearms down onto Knuckles' head, but barely brushed the crimson dreads - the echidna had been expecting such a move. He hadn't expected the robot to suddenly switch modes and wrap a pair of near-invisible tails around his ankle, tripping him into the beach again. Even as he tried to get up, a metal foot landed firmly on the back of his neck.

Knuckles went still; if Emerl had used full force, or even now if he leaned enough, he could snap the echidna's neck. However, the Gizoid instead twisted Knuckles' tail, then removed his foot, jumping up and down as his opponent got back on his feet. "I win, I win! I can beat anybody, so there! I can twist your kinked tail!"

"Hah hah hah!" growled Knuckles irritably. "You sure are a powerful, annoying, little kid!" He brushed ineffectively at his fur; the sand was clear through to his skin and itched ferociously.

Emerl cocked his head and replied to the echidna, "I sure am!"

Knuckles growled and waded into the water, trying to rinse the sand out. _Of course now I'll have salt in my fur, and that itches as well . . . ._ He wasn't really that annoyed, though, it had been the best workout he'd had in a while, even if he had ultimately lost.

A familiar and much unloved cackle rang out across the sand. "Hah hah hah! Well, Gizoid! I see that you've really started to grow up!"

"Eggman!" Knuckles whirled to face the human as he glided up in his Eggmobile. The small hovercraft made almost no noise as it slipped above the sand, but it blew up enough of a wake that Knuckles could just make out the silver forms behind it. Robots of some sort, he was certain, but he couldn't identify the type.

"Long time no see!" chuckled the Doctor.

Emerl tipped his head the other way, looking at the new arrival. "Huh? Who are _you_!?"

The human's eyes widened enough to lift his brows free of the dark spectacles he habitually wore. "Huh!? It's me! Doctor Eggman! You should learn some respect!" The brows lowered ominously as the doctor noticed Knuckles' smirk. "Enough! Get him, Phi #4! Capture Gizoid!"

Knuckles had been expecting that command, and now the two silver shapes stepped through the sand-haze; one took a guard position before the hovercraft, the other marched towards Emerl and grabbed its prototype by the arm. Emerl looked at the hand on his arm, looked at the blank silver face before him, then punched the other robot right between its black eyes. Knuckles let out a whoop as the Phi staggered backwards, and jumped forward himself as it hurled a familiar-looking bat-shaped bomb at the Gizoid.

Emerl blasted the bomb out of the air without apparently looking at it, and followed with a shot at the other robot's midsection. Phi took wing (it was most annoying, how they kept using body parts they didn't actually have, Knuckles thought) and avoided the Gizoid's attack but it put itself neatly in the path of Knuckles spiked fists as he glided in to join the fight. A neat blow knocked Phi back down where Emerl attempted to stomp on the other robot, then used Knuckles' ground punch move and rattled it badly - and literally. The echidna blinked as he straightened from his landing crouch, feeling the tremor through the ground. _How did he do __**that**__? Surely the Gizoid doesn't have a link with the Master Emerald . . . or can he borrow mine? Can he fool the gem into thinking he's a guardian, or an echidna?_ He snorted and shook his head. That was clearly ridiculous. Tails had said that Professor Gerald had said that Emerl was a relic from the Babylonian days, and although the echidnas back then had traded with the Babylonians, they weren't the sort to trust allies very far, even before Pachacamac's reign. One might as well think that the Gizoid was part of the mythical Nocturnus clan, which had allegedly challenged Pachacamac and then vanished so completely that not even a relic remained. Knuckles doubted they ever _had_ existed; certainly there was a complete lack of artifacts. _And I should know, I've looked._

At any rate, Emerl had managed to break the other robot's right shoulder joint, and was now hitting it with its own arm while Eggman spluttered in fury. Apparently he'd been sold a faulty batch of steel, or something of the sort. Knuckles snorted, then grinned widely at the human, baring the longer canines carried by male dokan. "Did you think your robot could stop us? That Emerald shard is ours!"

The human glanced at the echidna, then looked back to the robots to see Emerl extracting a yellow crystal from the defeated Phi. He scowled ferociously while Emerl announced, "I'm feeling great!"

With a snarl, Eggman spun his Eggmobile around, calling Phi #5 to follow. "Darn! Retreat!" He darted away, with the robot running after him.

Generations of proud warriors demanded that Knuckles not let his foe escape. "I'm not letting you get away! Let's get him, Emerl!"

"Don't fall behind, Knuckles!" The gold and tan robot dashed off like a certain blue hedgehog, showering the echidna with a cloud of sand.

"H-hey!" Spluttering and trying to clear his eyes, Knuckles stumbled after the others. "Emerl, wait!" By the time he could see again, both robots and the Doctor were gone. Knuckles considered a moment, then scurried up the nearest palm tree and started a long shallow glide. Traveling from tree to rooftop to power pole, he worked his way in a straight line towards Night Babylon. Emerl had said that he and Rouge had found an Eggman base there, so rather than trying to track on pavement, let alone track a hovering vehicle, the echidna would try to head them off_ en route_.

Sure enough, at Marks Crossing, only a few blocks from Night Babylon, he crossed paths with the others. This was a relief, as during his trip he'd had a chance to realize that Eggman had actually taken the Gizoid back, in essence. Eggman was not pleased to see him again. "So you've caught up with me!" he growled at Knuckles, as Emerl jogged to join the echidna ("Hey Knuckles! What took you so long?"). "You persistent punks!" continued the scientist, "Get them, Phi #5!"

The remaining Phi robot jumped into the air and glided towards Knuckles, spikes erupting from its own knuckles. Knuckles laughed as he caught it by the wrists and stepped out of the way. "You think you can defeat me with my own tactics?" he snorted. Emerl pulled out a bat bomb and lobbed it on the other robot. Unfortunately, he didn't aim very well, so the resulting explosion merely removed the three-pronged headpiece. It did throw the robot off balance, however, and Knuckles kept it that way with a solid punch. Emerl spindashed into the opponent and dented it severely. Knuckles repeated the punch and number five went down just like the others. Emerl pried out the shard and held it up triumphantly.

"Ha haa!" Knuckles cheered, while trying to figure out what to do about Eggman.

"Iyaaa!" crowed the robot back, which startled the echidna - that was an ancient echidnan cheer.

_Must be an coincidence_, he told himself. "Not too bad, partner!" He clapped Emerl on the shoulder with a clang.

"Partner?" The gold face swivelled toward him.

"Yeah, you're my battle partner," Knuckles told him, keeping his eyes on the Doctor. Eggman had a fist to his chin, staring vaguely at his control panel. _He's plotting something. I'd better find out what he's up to._ Emerl certainly wasn't vulnerable to the Phis, so there was no reason not to take him along.

Suddenly Eggman looked up at his enemies. "Aaarrgh," he cried, grabbing his moustache in both hands, "I've been defeated!" He let his moustache slip free as he stared around dramatically, then did a very bad imitation of someone getting a bright idea. "I must retreat to Gimme Shelter." He glanced at Knuckles and Emerl again, and repeated loudly and slowly, "THEY'LL NEVER FIND ME IN GIMME SHELTER, LOCATED IN NIGHT BABYLON!" Then he grandly and slowly 'raced' off in his hoverpod, leaving no doubt of the direction.

Knuckles and Emerl looked at each other. "Sheesh, why didn't he leave a trail of breadcrumbs, or something," grumbled the echidna. Then he frowned. "What's . . ." he started, pulling Emerl's head forward. He cut himself short as he identified the small metal receiver tucked under a horn. Had Eggman put it there, to listen to the people who picked up the Gizoid? Hmm. _The Doctor clearly wants me to follow him to this Gimme Shelter place; he's probably trying to trick me again. We've got five of the yellow Emerald shards now, so we could head back to Tails' lab and see if he really can put the Chaos Emerald back together, but Eggman probably has more of those Phi 'bots in his hideout, so maybe we can go on and get those too! In fact, that's probably what he's up to; he's going to lure us in so that all the remaining Phis can jump us at once and then he can kick me out and keep Emerl for himself. But if we're expecting an ambush, he'll have a much harder time of it, and I'm not so easy to throw out as he seems to think. _The echidna huffed, irritated that Eggman thought so little of him. One or two extra robots were hardly going to defeat Knuckles, since he'd already taken on pairs of the things with no trouble. _So, we'll head on to Eggman's lair, and show him that he can't defeat an echidnan warrior so easily, AND reclaim the other Chaos shards as well._

He let go of Emerl's head. "We got the fifth Emerald shard, but we'll head back to Tails' lab later! We gotta catch Eggman! We'll get him this time!" That should ensure that the human was ready for them to arrive, so there'd be no doubt when Knuckles defeated him who was really the best.

"I'll make him pay!!" averred Emerl, and ran off in the direction of Gimme Shelter.

Knuckles groaned as he followed. "Do I really say things like that?" He ran after Emerl as the robot turned down an alley and ran through an open, battered-looking door in a brick wall. Knuckles had just time to realize as he ran through it that the inner walls were metal before a metal door slammed down from the ceiling, cutting off their escape. Automatically he braced for an attack, but nothing happened. Emerl wandered around, then poked a button beside a door in the opposite wall.

"Emerl, wait!" Knuckles got in front of the robot and jumped through the door, ready for an ambush. Instead it was a nearly empty hall, with pipes running along the ceiling and no sound except for distant clinks of metal on metal, and the faint hum of electricity. Then the echidna detected a faint, familiar chortle from an open door ahead to the left. _Aha! _He jumped through. "Is this the place!? Where is he?" Still no attack, no robots, no Eggman even, just an empty room.

"Gotcha!" Eggman's face appeared on a screen set into the wall, looking entirely too pleased. Knuckles stepped forward to challenge him, and every muscle in his body spasmed painfully. _Not again! This is what he did to me in the palace!_ He tried to stagger back, and the electricity released him, but then grabbed him again.

"Argh!" He somehow got balanced. "W-what's going on? I can't move!" Even as he asked he worked it out. There was a wide metal plate on the floor that echoed one on the ceiling, and somehow the Doctor was generating electricity between them. Where the echidna stood, a black rubber disk was inlaid in the floor and ceiling. As long as he balanced on this tiny black spot he was safe, but moving into the space between the metal plates would shock him. But in that much it was an improvement over the prior situation in the underground palace, when Eggman had simply shocked him into near-insensibility.

"What's wrong, Knuckles?" asked the robot behind him.

"Don't come any closer, Emerl!" cried Knuckles in alarm. He tried to turn, and lost his balance, pain jolting through his body until he managed to get free again. The fact that the shock made his muscles spasm made it even more difficult. But he could see the Gizoid now, and Emerl was standing on a strip of rubber that made a three-foot black border around the edge of the floor.

Doctor Eggman, however was laughing his ugly head off. "Hah hah hah hah! You fell right into my trap, Knuckles!"

Knuckles was furious and mortified at once. He'd been prepared for an ambush trap, not a mechanical one, and had rushed in just like everyone always said he did. But he _had_ thought it out! He'd _expected_ a trap - just, not this one. "You tricked me!" he growled.

"Hah hah hah!" Eggman was enjoying this far too much, thought the embarrassed echidna. "I deserve an award for my acting!" Knuckles choked. _Now that's too much - he actually thinks he fooled me with __**that**__? Of course no one will believe me if I say otherwise._ He tried to lunge for the clear zone where Emerl stood and got zapped again. Somehow the electric field cut his momentum, or prevented him from getting any. He literally couldn't leave the spot. "And this ultra-powerful 'spiky rodent trap' I developed to catch Sonic works perfectly!" Eggman continued._ Hmph. Some genius if he doesn't know the difference between a hedgehog and a mouse. _"It works even better than I expected! It shoots electricity through your body so you can't move! So, no matter how strong you are, if you can't move, you can't escape! Ha ha ha ha!"

"What're you up to, Eggman!?" Knuckles demanded, getting sick of the laughter aimed at him. He was trying to figure out some way out of the trap, but coming up blank. Could Emerl throw him a line and drag him across, perhaps, even if Knuckles himself couldn't move? Although getting shocked the whole way across the floor wouldn't be much fun.

"What else?" asked the Doctor rhetorically. "I shall take Gizoid back and fulfill my plans to take over the world! Once I have Gizoid acquire my ultimate weapon, 'Final Egg Blaster', I can tell the world's governments and GUN that I'll be able to use it as my final weapon of destruction."

"What the heck is the 'Final Egg Blaster'?" asked Knuckles in spite of himself. It sounded like a sci-fi handgun that shot eggs at people. He couldn't quite see the GUN Commander yielding to that.

The human blinked, frowned, and replayed what he'd just said in his head. Then he said, with a scowl and a shrug, "Oops! It's still supposed to be a secret! Well then! I must return to complete my secret 'Final Egg Blaster', so you'll have to excuse me!" Then in a completely different tone, he said "I leave the rest to you, Chaos Gamma."

"If I win, you'll give me a Chaos Emerald, right? You promise?" It was utterly eerie; the voice was the same - produced by the same equipment - but somehow absolutely soulless in a way that the original Gamma had not been. The missing quality was one Omega _did_ have, Knuckles realized, and Emerl, and even that Metal Sonic robot. What this Gamma's voice sounded most like, the echidna thought, was Shadow, when he'd been 'possessed' by Gerald's programming and trying to destroy the planet. The tall metal form clanked out of a dark niche on thin metal legs, then folded into a squattier stance that hovered across the floor, apparently immune to the electrical effect that was restraining Knuckles.

"Of course! I promise!" the mad scientist assured the robot. "But be sure to bring the Gizoid with you! That Gizoid is not fully awakened," he added dismissively. "And since that rodent is incapacitated, there's nothing he can do to stop me." The screen blinked off. Knuckles growled and tried to lunge free again, with the same result. He'd hoped that the robot might be weakening the field by its presence, even if it was itself unaffected. _And I'm NOT a rodent, I'm a monotreme._ He vented an angry sigh. _Sour grapes, Knuckles. You're temporarily powerless, so you try to diminish your enemy by attacking his words. What a warrior._

"Understood," said Chaos Gamma, gliding towards Emerl. "Power output max. Energy flow at one hundred-fifty percent. Initiating battle mode."

"Emerl, run!" yelled Knuckles.

Emerl gave him a truly Sonic-casual glance and said, "Don't worry about it, partner!" He followed with an equally Sonic-like spindash that brought him into the electric field as well, and struck sparks off the other robot. Gamma opened fire with some sort of projectile gun that brought home to Knuckles just how much danger he was in - if one of those bullets came his way, or ricocheted towards him, he couldn't even try to dodge. He was trapped in the middle of the battle zone, unarmed and defenseless. Merely attempting to raise his arms to shield himself triggered the electric field, which rendered him unable to even watch the fight. The only small consolation was that Emerl was as unaffected by the field as Gamma, so there seemed to be little chance of the red imposter actually winning. In fact, Chaos Gamma collapsed on itself and exploded very shortly.

Or seemed to. The explosion had flung various small metal bits towards the echidna, and his instinctive attempt to shield his face had re-incurred painful shocks. As he rebalanced, he heard the voice speak up again. "Auto-check start." He was dismayed to see that the 'explosion' had merely blown a small piece of shielding clear, and by the looks of it, that was a planned loss. "Recovery initiated," added the robot, "I cannot lose." Emerl stood watching as the red mech clicked and whirred, then rose on its stilt-like legs. "Power output at two hundred percent! Energy flow at two hundred percent! Initiating battle mode."

Again, Knuckles could do nothing but stand and hope nothing dangerous came his way, until Emerl sent the other robot weaving out the door. "Power output draining," slurred the defeated Gamma-imposter, it's mechanical voice wavering in pitch and volume. "Energy draining . . . . Battle impossible . . . ." And it was gone.

Emerl marched up to Knuckles and looked at him curiously. "Knuckles, you okay?" He appeared to be wondering why the echidna hadn't joined the fight.

"Great job partner!" Knuckles congratulated him.

"I'm invincible!" declared Emerl. Something in his tone gave Knuckles a slight qualm, but he ignored it, being more concerned with getting out of the doctor's trap.

"You said it!" he agreed - a bit too firmly, as he got jolted again. "Hey, Emerl, do you see a switch over there? If you can turn this thing off, I should be able to move."

Emerl obligingly went over to the console set under the viewscreen, and looked at the various buttons and switches. The first thing he pressed turned the lights off, but not the electricity. The second and third didn't seem to do anything, but the fourth - apparently a knob, since Knuckles could make out the twisting motion, gave the echidna more room to move, but didn't turn the current off. He got two steps before the shock made him yelp and stumble back. Emerl watched with interest. "Come on, Knuckles, is that all you got!?" he called. "How can you fight anything if you can't even shove out of that?"

"What!? I'll show you my true strength!" Knuckles eyed the distance to the black floor bordering the trap. _That last one felt more like a forcefield with the shock secondary. Maybe I __**can**__ push on through it. _He crouched, focused, and hurled himself forward, straining against the invisible barrier and trying to ignore the shocks.

"Oh, I wonder if this is the right switch," the robot said suddenly.

The next thing Knuckles knew, he'd collided head-first with the wall. "Ouch!" He stood up, rubbing his neck. "Hey, you did that on purpose!" he accused the robot.

Since the Gizoid had no mouth, he couldn't smile, but Knuckles was certain that the golden robot was laughing at him. "Let's go!" was all Emerl said. "Stop wasting time!" He trotted out of the room.

Knuckles turned his head gingerly, decided there was no permanent damage, although his muscles were still twitching. "Hey wait up! If you keep talking like that, Sonic will smack you!"


	13. Mothering a Weapon

12. Mothering a Weapon

"Welcome back!" Tails voice sounded rather tinnily from the receiver beside Rouge's computer. "You guys were gone a while!" A noise that might have been a gasp - it was hard to tell - followed by, "W-what happened? You both look horrible!"

Knuckles gave an uncomfortable chuckle as the bat looked away from her screen to the receiver. A useless move, since there was no video, but she'd like to know the answer to that question as well. She'd listened to Emerl and Knuckles arriving at Eggman's hideout, but then the connection had gone totally dead for a long time, before abruptly the sound was back with Knuckles fuming under his breath about - something.

"Look what we found!" declared the echidna, clearly dodging the question.

"Hey! The other two Emerald shards! I have enough shards to make a whole Chaos Emerald!!! Hold on one second . . ." Rouge looked back to the computer screen, keeping on ear tuned to the receiver. She was trying to track down Shadow's mysterious 'agents' but not having any luck. She'd enlisted her friend Amber, the GUN Commander's primary aide, and verified that no GUN agents had been sent to instruct Shadow to retrieve the Gizoid. At the moment, GUN's official position was that the Gizoid needed to be under governmental control. The Commander's private view was that the robot was too dangerous for anyone to use and should be destroyed, but he was realistic enough to know that such destruction was unlikely to occur. It was an unusual mindset for a military officer, but he had after all been one of the colonists pulled off the ARK in the original tragedy, and knew all too clearly what both military officers and the Gizoid were capable of if not closely monitored. Rouge drummed her fingers on the desk while she considered her next move. She'd snagged images of the alleged agents from the hospital security cameras (and deleted her own visit while she was at it), and started a scan through several government rosters for any matches. (Oh, would she be in trouble if anyone found _that_ one out. But that was half the fun of the game, after all.) She tapped in a few quick commands and started a search through the GUN files. _They may not have been __**sent **__by GUN, but they might still be part of it, and that would give them easy access to the equipment they left Shadow. I do wish he'd wake up; I want my couch back._

She flicked her attention back to the distant workshop. "There you go Emerl!" said the fox cub cheerily. "How do you feel?"

"Really good! Thanks Tails!" Rogue raised an eyebrow. _It sounds more like a real person all the time. I wonder what other effects the Chaos Emeralds are having on it?_

Tails laughed. "You've grown a little bit more! But if you're going to thank anyone, thank Knuckles!"

"Oh, yeah! Thanks, partner!"

"Partner?" queried Tails. Rouge lost interest, having already heard Knuckles and the Gizoid on the beach, until a whisper from the echidna caught her attention.

"Hey Emerl! Let's just keep the fact that Eggman tricked me our little secret, ok?"

"Sure thing, partner," whispered the robot agreeably, while the bat smirked. _So old Eggy got him again, hmm? Will he __**never **__learn? _Then Emerl said, loudly, "It's a secret, but my partner got tricked by Eggman again! A secret! Right partner?" Rouge dissolved into laughter.

She didn't hear whatever Knuckles or Tails said next; she was laughing too hard to listen. _Oh, poor Knuckles. Boy, will he hear it from me later!_ She got control of herself in time to hear the robot say, in clear puzzlement, "What _is_ a secret Knuckles?"

Someone spluttered - presumably the echidna, because it was Tails' voice that answered the perplexed robot. "A secret is something that you don't tell anyone else, Emerl. You keep it between yourself and the other people who already know."

"But Eggman told us about the Final Egg Blaster and I didn't know about that until he told us. And then he said it was a secret. Oh, does that mean I shouldn't have told you that either?"

"Umm," Rouge could picture the little fox trying to work out how to explain the difference between secrets you kept and secrets you told. "Well, Eggman told you about the Blaster thing by accident," said Tails after a moment. "He tends to get carried away when he's bragging, and say things he didn't intend to. But you probably shouldn't tell anyone else about Knuckles getting tricked. It's not nice."

"Gotcha! It's really our secret now, okay, partner? Forgive me?"

"I suppose," muttered Knuckles. "You stay with Tails now, okay? I need to go clean up and check on . . . my other duties." _Now that's interesting_, thought the bat, _he doesn't want to tell Emerl about the Master Emerald? I wonder if that's important, or just the Guardian being cautious. Albeit belatedly._ A door opened and closed and Tails returned to his own tasks, apparently leaving Emerl to watch and absorb, or think, or whatever a robot did with free time.

But Rouge had her own answers to pursue, and the computer was asking for attention. "Match found" said the screen. Rouge called up the personnel files retrieved from GUN's own databanks. "Aha!" she said triumphantly. The two 'agents' had, in fact, worked for GUN for nearly a decade apiece, but both had been discharged several years ago. The man had left first, for insubordination: he'd refused to work with a dokan on an inter-governmental assignment._ Now why does that not surprise me? _Rouge sniffed, remembering his casual dismissal of Shadow. The woman, a Major Stephanie Tildwell, had left seven months later, after being written up several times for associating with an unapproved group. To her annoyance, Rouge could find no details on that group, but both false agents were currently living in a commune called Nocturne Chorale. _Nocturne? That sounds familiar. Where have I – ah yes, the offer to Eggman, to purchase the Gizoid. _Rouge quickly pulled up information on Nocturne Chorale; it seemed to be a typical commune, if there was such a thing, rejecting worldly possessions and economy in favor of a 'simple, natural life'. This particular one also seemed to believe in the 'heartening' influence of classical music, and had speakers that played appropriate tunes to the plants and animals as well as in the buildings. Otherwise, lots of farming and hard manual labor and growing your own clothing. Rouge couldn't imagine anything less appealing. _I __**like **__worldly possessions, thank-you-very-much. And supper in a box or at a local restaurant, and clothing that I only have to pick off the rack and pay for. I don't like coincidences, but I don't see how this could possibly be connected. This lot may not be __**anti**__-robot, but they certainly wouldn't be in the market for one either, so this can't be the 'Nocturne' that contacted Eggman. Although, the ex-GUN pair live there, and they were trying to get Shadow to bring them the Gizoid, so perhaps they __**do**__ want one? They want to teach him to be a hippie robot?_

That image appealed to her sense of the ridiculous, and she was laughing as she went to get pull a nice, processed, frozen meal out of the freezer and heat it up. Frowning at her slumbering houseguest, she finally threw together a peanut butter sandwich and left the plate on the end table by his head, along with a glass of water. If he wanted anything fancier, he could wake up and ask for it. Tails had apparently shut down for the night - he was asking the Gizoid to watch the lab until morning - so she turned off the receiver. On a whim, she pulled up information again about the faux janitor and the People Are Human organization. _I __**really**__ don't like coincidences, and we've got this 'Nocturne' word, at least, connected to interest in the Gizoid through both Shadow and Eggman. And this Garret person may not be interested in the Gizoid, but the timing of the bug, right after I was assigned to recover it, is - again! - coincidental. Perhaps there's some link between Sam Garret and Shadow's agents?_ She keyed in a search for that, and another for 'nocturne' in general. Yes, drinks, music, and a fair number of adult clubs and lingerie shops, plus a brand-name for ladies' nightclothes. Sighing, she set about eliminating the largest groups, trying to see if there was anything useful. A horse named 'Silent Nocturne', standing at stud. A borzoi named 'Nocturne in D', who'd taken top honors at some dog show. With a grimace she stripped the animal-related entries from the results. Still FAR too many. On a whim she cross-referenced the three names she had; she'd found nothing coming from the other direction, but search engines were sometimes balky beasts and . . . .

She lost her train of thought as she got three hits, all under Stephanie Tildwell. Apparently, Major Tildwell had been contacted by a 'Nocturne' via her GUN email address about four years ago. All non-critical emails were supposed to be purged after twelve months, but that was a practice more honored in the breach than in the keeping. The 'sent' emails were apparently lost, since Rouge couldn't find them, but the received were interesting indeed. An unknown party had contacted the Major, seeking information related to the Knuckles clan of echidnas and the power stones. The second missive (apparently sent after the Major had replied to the first) clarified that the stones in question were the Chaos Emeralds and the Master Emerald. The third essentially thanked her for her assistance and asked her to inform the sender of any further information regarding the Emeralds or echidnas. All three bore the word 'Nocturne' as a signature. _I wish I could find the emails she sent back. Hmm. No mention of the Gizoid here, though. _She recalled Professor Gerald's diary entry, the one that discussed the Gizoid being linked to a 'lost' tribe of echidnas. Perhaps someone was researching or trying to revive that hypothesis? Looking for information on echidnas to connect them to the Gizoid, and trying to obtain the Gizoid itself for the same reason?_ But then why not contact Knuckles directly? Or maybe someone has . . . . _She considered asking the Guardian, but couldn't come up with a plausible reason. And the secrecy . . . . It just didn't feel _right_ to be anything as innocent as historical research. Which left her with what? The bat scowled at the screen for a while, drumming her fingers in time to the music from below, then gave it up and went to bed.

In the morning she returned to her computer and flipped on the receiver to hear Amy accosting Tails: "Tails! Where's Sonic?"

"Umm . . . he isn't here," was the nervous reply. A corner of the bat's mouth quirked as Amy made the cub repeat it. _He's lying._

"What?" demanded the pink hedgehog again. "He's not here?"

"That's what he said . . ." started Tails. Rouge shook her head.

"So he is here!" cried Amy. There was a sudden commotion of doors and (it sounded like) cabinets being hauled open and slammed shut, accompanied by the crash and clatter of things falling on the floor.

"Hey Emerl," said a harsh whisper, "don't say anything, but let's head for the beach." Rouge grinned. Sonic could take on Eggman, giant robots, ancient 'gods', armies of aliens . . . but not a single twelve-year-old girl. But then, he was hardly alone in that; many males had found females to be their undoing.

The two made good their escape to the beach, but then Amy caught up with Sonic again, and he threw the Gizoid to the wolf, as it were. Shortly after he made his escape, a Phi appeared and announced its orders to capture Emerl. Rouge listened to the resulting battle between Amy, Emerl and two Phis, followed by Amy's discovery of two 'dropped' Emerald shards. Then she reached for her boots. _Sounds like I'd better get out there and track them_, she sighed.

"Emerl," said Amy thoughtfully, "you gain new abilities when you take Chaos Emeralds, right?"

"Yep," agreed the robot. "Lately I have been able to tell if there are Chaos Emeralds within my surroundings!" he added proudly.

"I wonder if you've got a sensor of some sort–" The transmission was cut off as Rouge pocketed the receiver and headed outside. She flew lazily towards Emerald Beach, but spotted the pink hedgehog and golden robot turning onto the street that Amy's apartment was on. To the bat's annoyance, they went inside.

She flipped the receiver back on and spent a long, dull period listening to the Amy bullying the Gizoid and her friend Cream into exercising with her. Rouge pictured the gleaming stones of her new jewelry, and tried to decide what sort of gown would set them off best. Which reminded her . . . She pulled out her phone and placed a quick call to Amber, to report the necklaces she'd recovered from Marauve. As it was her friend's lunch break, she flew quickly home, and then to a café they both liked, to meet her and hand over the jewelry. Amber opened the bag and took a quick peek, carefully shielding the contents from sight by anyone else at the café. "What! Rouge the bat, jewel thief extraordinaire, returning jewelry?"she teased.

Rouge gave her a mock glare, then grinned. "I need the reward money to buy a set at Eureka. If you happen to pass by, you should stop and look at them - a gorgeous group of necklace bracelets and earrings." In truth, it was a wrench to give them up, but it would look good to her bosses, and help counter accusations of thieving - if she were a thief, would she be _returning_ jewelry?

"Uh-huh," said Amber skeptically. "Eureka, as in the store that a Chaos Emerald was stolen from last night?"

"What!? No!" exclaimed Rouge. "You mean someone broke into there? They had at least four guards when I was there and that was during the day- surely they've got security at night!" She feigned sudden dismay. "You don't think the thieves might have taken my jewelry, do you?"

Amber eyed her, and Rouge knew that the human knew perfectly well who had robbed the store. But her friend merely shook her head. "I'm sure that if your gems were taken they would have notified you already. When do I get to see them?"

"Hmm, are you coming to the Inauguration ball? I'll wear them then." The talk shifted into more general gossip about who would be there, and with whom, until Amber said that she needed to get back.

"I have a little discretion, but I still can't take an all-day lunch. I assume you want the rewards credited to the usual account?"

"Please. And I really do appreciate this, Amber."

"That's alright. It wouldn't do to have the President's favorite spy getting arrested under suspicion of being a common thief, would it." The fair-haired human waved and headed back towards the GUN offices.

Rouge paid the bill - only fair, since she was asking a favor - and ambled back in the direction of Amy's apartment. She flipped on the receiver in time to hear: "Mom! I think there's an Emerald around here. There's definitely a Chaos Emerald around here ! It's there!"

"You serious?" asked Amy's voice.

"Mom! Over here!" A door opened, and footsteps.

"Cream stay here and watch the place for us!" Amy sounded like she was trying to catch up to Emerl. "We'll be right back!"

That sounded interesting. Rouge took to the air and flew much more quickly towards the apartment building. She was in luck, for she spotted the pink hedgehog turning a corner, and swung a sharp right to follow. There was the Gizoid looking left and right at the next intersection.

"Which way, Emerl?" Rouge could hear that perfectly well, so she switched off the receiver and landed on a convenient ledge. The answer was equally audible, but not from Emerl.

"Target identified! Initiate capture mode." Rouge recognized the voice but couldn't spot the speaker.

Amy did, though. "Hey, it's Gamma! It _is_ Gamma, right?" She sounded thrilled, as if she'd just rejoined a long lost friend. Which fit with Rouge's research; that Amy's befriending of the original E-102 Gamma had led to the decommissioning of all the early E-series, to free the Flicky family trapped within them. But while she had considered the robot a friend, it had really been the effects of the biopowering bird within, and this wasn't the same robot anyway.

Chaos Gamma was not impressed. "Initiate battle mode," it announced, rolling into view and bringing its weapons to bear on the pink hedgehog and her companion.

"Hey, wait up!" At first Amy was more indignant than frightened. "You're Gamma, right?" Uncertainty was creeping into her voice, though.

"No such code name in memory," droned the red robot, "I am not Gamma." The guns crackled, but Amy wasn't the target. Emerl dodged as the projectiles hissed towards him, and then jumped forward to slam the other robot with a mallet pulled out of thin air.

Amy recovered from her shock much faster than the watching bat had expected, and countered Emerl's attack with her own, letting the momentum imparted by the Gizoid's strike impel Chaos Gamma into her own approaching hammer. Rouge relaxed slightly; she'd been ready to interfere if it had looked like the girl was in real trouble, but it didn't look like she needed to. Emerl had fought the gray versions of this robot with Rouge outside of Gimme Shelter, and had fought Chaos Gamma itself inside the shelter with Knuckles. Therefore he had no trouble anticipating and countering the red robot's moves. He also appeared, from Rouge's perspective, to be deliberately interposing himself between the opponent and Amy, thereby shielding her from most of the other robot's attacks even at the cost of taking extra blows himself. (Which admittedly did not seem to be much of a penalty, as none of the attacks seemed able to damage the gold exterior.) Meanwhile Amy kept raining blows of her own on the red armor, doing a decent amount of damage herself. Abruptly, Chaos Gamma collapsed, and Emerl grabbed Amy and shoved her behind himself. "Unable to fight," droned the red robot - then leapt up and fled, leaving the Gizoid visibly startled. _Whatever he was expecting, it wasn't that, _thought Rouge. It was vaguely reassuring that the Gizoid couldn't absolutely predict his enemy's moves.

Amy wasn't pleased that the other robot had gotten away. "Hey! You! Wait!" she called after the departed Gamma imitator. "We lost him," she turned back to Emerl, who was looking around with his head tilted up, like someone trying to locate a faint scent.

Suddenly he snapped a golden arm up, finger pointing in a straight line towards Club Rouge, although even the watcher above couldn't see it through the intervening buildings. "That way, mom!" he declared confidently.

Amy looked - and frowned. "Isn't that," she started, then stepped back shaking her head decidedly. "Sheesh! It's Night Babylon. I really don't want to take you to that spooky place," she trailed off as Emerl marched past her.

"Let's go, mom!"

"Hey, w-wait! Emerl!"

Snickering quietly, Rouge took off and followed. She suspected Emerl had picked up the Chaos Emerald that Shadow almost certainly had, and possibly her second shard. She intended to get ahead of them before they got to the building, but wanted to make certain they weren't delayed - or sidetracked.

Delayed turned out to be the key word; they were intercepted by a Phi. "Enemy detected!"

"Who are you calling an enemy?" demanded Amy. A wrist flick, and the hammer appeared. "Emerl! Let's take care of this robot real quick and get our Emerald shard!"

"OK, mom!" agreed the Gizoid, as a second Phi stepped out of the alley. With a sigh, Rouge settled on another convenient ledge and waited for the fight to end.

This time the Phi that attacked Emerl used gliding attacks and a variety of punches that Rouge considered 'classic Knuckles'. Amy's bout was more interesting, since she had ended up facing one of the Sonic imitators. And it did prove to be an interesting fight.

Rouge didn't think Sonic had spent much time sparring with Amy - he frequently left when she arrived, and her crush probably wouldn't permit her to risk damaging her blue hero. But she had no problem anticipating or fending off the Phi's attacks, even to using several counter moves that Rouge made note of to copy herself. At some point, Amy had clearly sat down and studied Sonic's moves until she'd not only memorized them but been able to design defenses against them. _Which is interesting; surely she didn't think she'd need to protect herself from Sonic's attacks? Unless perhaps she thought he might start chasing her one of these days? But a defense implies that she wouldn't want him to do so. Maybe the defenses were intended to be used against Shadow?_ That made more sense; after all, Shadow had become known to the world at large as a thief and then turned out to be working for Doctor Eggman. So perhaps the attacks and counters Amy was using were originally designed for fighting Shadow rather than Sonic. _A bit grandiose of her to expect to take on Shadow, but she does have a history of standing up for herself. Ouch! _Amy had just done a sort of roundhouse strike where she brought her hammer around three hundred sixty degrees and jumped - slamming it into the whirring ball of the home-attacking Phi. With a resounding clang the robot was deflected sharply into a nearby window, but the hammer was jolted out of Amy's hands. Shaking her right wrist, she scrambled after it while Phi tried to disentangle itself from the tangle of clothes and mannequins it had landed amid.

"Mom! Duck!" shouted Emerl, and Amy dropped flat as the Knuckles Phi flew overhead. It had suddenly turned from fighting Emerl to launch a fist-first glide at the pink hedgehog, which could have been very bad if it had hit her mid-torso as it had intended. The Gizoid blasted it as soon as it had passed her, sending a shower of metal bits onto the pavement. Amy scrambled up just in time for the remaining Phi to yank clear of the window dressing and spindash towards her again. Swinging her hammer like a croquet mallet, she knocked it back to Emerl, who used one of Knuckles' ground punches to flatten its metal skull. "Emerald shard!" Emerl crowed, extracting a pale blue gem like a pearl from a metal oyster.

"All right!" agreed Amy, as she picked up a similar crystal from the confetti of the other Phi. "So, now we have a total of four shards. All we need is one more, and we'll have enough to create a Chaos Emerald! That wasn't so hard!" She frowned; the Gizoid was doing his questing thing again. "What is it Emerl? Do you sense another Chaos Emerald in the area?"

"Over there," he pointed in the direction of Club Rouge again. "It's the same one, only these bozos interrupted me before I got to it. But we sure showed them, huh, mom?"

Rouge didn't have the best view of Amy's face, but the hedgehog didn't seem to quite know how to take the robot's hodgepodge speech styles. With a shake of her head, she finally said, "Where?" Moving over to sight along the golden arm, she stepped back and looked up at her companion in dismay. "Club Rouge?"

"Over at Rouge's place!" confirmed the Gizoid, as Rouge took wing to beat them to her apartment.

She had her key in her apartment door as Emerl flung open the door from the stairs, saying, "It's in here! I wonder if Rouge has it?"

Amy was looking back down the steps as she came through the door, so she didn't see the bat waiting for them. "What a dump! This really isn't a good place for you, Emerl!"

"A dump?" Rouge was insulted. Admittedly the staircase to the apartment looked like public stairs anywhere, but they were at least clean! And the club itself, which Amy must have come through tangentially, had been designed by Rouge herself, so if the hedgehog was referring to that –! "Look who's talking, you obnoxious little girl!" she snapped.

"You have an Emerald shard, right?" Amy met her gaze squarely, not giving an inch, nor showing any embarrassment at having been overheard.

"So what if I do?" countered Rouge, rather sulkily.

"Why don't you just hand it over to us. It's not useful to you anyway," pointed out Amy.

"Gems are their own use,"replied the bat. "Why should I give it to you?"

"Now, now, you two," the robot overrode whatever Amy was about to say. "There's no need for you two to fight, OK?" Both females blinked at him in surprise.

Rouge cocked an eyebrow at Amy. "I know he didn't get that from Sonic or Knuckles. Was that Tails?"

"I think it was Cream, actually," Amy answered with a grimace. "She was exercising with us and she really hates fighting, even as practice. But that's your answer there," she waved at Emerl, "I need the Emerald shard to help him get powered up, so we can make him safe. Um, weren't you the one who told Tails about that?"

"Guilty," admitted Rouge. "But are you sure you can't let me keep just one little shard? There's so much power in a Chaos Emerald anyway, it'll hardly be missed!"

The pink hedgehog crossed her arms and glared at the bat. Then she shook her head slightly. "You'll have to take that up with Tails, since he's the one putting the gems back together. We're just supposed to bring him five pieces. Unless the one you have isn't light blue?"

Rouge made a face. "It is. So what are you going to give me in return? I'm not a philanthropist, you know."

"Uh," Amy hadn't expected that. She frowned, clearly trying to think what she could offer the bat. "How about an Ultimate Weapon that won't simply destroy the planet for fun?"

"I did it, mom!" announced Emerl, startling Rouge as he stepped out of her apartment. The robot had the cyan shard cupped in one hand. He tipped his head at Rouge. "My thief skills _are_ good, aren't they?"

Rouge gaped at the robot, while Amy cheered. "Good job, Emerl! Now hand over the Emerald shard!"

The bat gave up. "Yes, yes," she waved irritably at the pair. "Here, take it!"

"All right, we now have a total of five light blue shards!"

"That wasn't too difficult," said the robot.

"Let's go back to Tails'," Amy continued, "and put these pieces together!"

"The _dear_ Doctor had a total of three Chaos Emeralds," said Rouge warningly. "One more and we'll have all his Emeralds, but knowing him, he's going to pull a trick on us at the very last minute. He must have a plan by now."

Amy looked at her in surprise. "We? Us?"

"As I've said before, I don't want to see the planet destroyed, or Doctor Eggman triumphant. But you really can't expect me to just hand over something I had to work to get - _I'm_ no hero. I've already given out more free information than I usually do in a year."

Amy gave her a skeptical look, then shrugged and looked to the Gizoid. "Don't worry Emerl, I'll protect you. You can count on me!"

Emerl agreed enthusiastically. "Yeah, we'll beat him together!"

Rouge snorted. "Good luck," she said, resigning herself to the loss of her second Emerald shard.

"But, Amy," said Emerl, "there's another Emerald here."

"It must be the Chaos Emerald that Shadow has," said Rouge. She hadn't been _certain_ he had one, but she'd have been amazed if he didn't. Emerl had just confirmed its presence for her. _That's all seven accounted for then, and only one more in possession of Eggman._

"Shadow?" asked Amy. "He's here?"

"He's been here for a while, but he still hasn't woken up." The bat frowned. _How long has he been here now? _

"What's he doing here?" demanded Amy.

"It's a long story," Rouge temporized. _Besides, I'm not sure how much to explain. _She shook her head. "When he wakes up, he'll go directly to this robot," she said finally, avoiding the question. "That's certain. You'll need to wait if you want to find out."

Amy scowled, then marched off with Emerl in tow.


	14. A Weapon Seeks a Weapon

13. A Weapon Seeks a Weapon

Shadow wasn't certain how long he'd been staring at the ceiling overhead, but the orange glow of a sodium street lamp had been diffused and replaced by the pink tones of dawn. He had actually awakened the afternoon before, and overheard the discussion in the hall, but he'd feigned sleep when the Gizoid slipped through the room and returned with what could only be a damaged Chaos Emerald, and again when Rouge checked up on him. But he'd spent most of the night awake and thinking. He still wasn't sure how the Chaos Emeralds had been broken, but it was clear enough that the initial 'blow' that had knocked him out had been _when_ they'd been shattered, and that the broken pieces had been the source of the dizzying echoes that had confounded him afterwards. He had an inherent feel for Chaos energy - that was what allowed him to store and manipulate it (and he did store it, although he could access more and control it more easily with the aid of an Emerald) - and he knew that the Emeralds reflected and refracted the energy internally, creating a magnifying effect. Once broken, the individual pieces had continued to draw energy from their surroundings and reflected it to other parts of the gem - but where the other parts had been missing, the energy had been freed, even though it was, well . . . unfinished. To his senses, the effect had been like a strobe light, or the pandemonium his mind had pictured earlier, and the input had simply overwhelmed his brain's processing and thinking areas.

_Obviously there were several of the shard-powered - what did they call them, Pis? - robots in the Doctor's base off the alley, and that's why I couldn't think or fight well there. And whatever channels or senses I use to manipulate the Chaos energy got overloaded when they shattered because I was using them at the time, just like too loud a noise can damage hearing. _ He'd already tested himself and determined that the damage _had _been temporary; he could pull Chaos energy and shunt it about as easily and fully as ever, including from the Chaos Emerald he had with him, although he'd restricted the use to subtle effects. He also knew, even if Rouge didn't, that the last of the broken Emeralds was now restored, and with six in one location, they were calling to the last. That much he could feel through the currents of Chaos energy and his own, green Emerald.

Finally he sat up. _I suppose this must be Rouge's apartment_, he thought. In contrast to her usual manner and dress, the furnishings were quietly expensive; the most exotic item was a case mounted on one wall that displayed a variety of jewelry backed by velvet. A window looked across a narrow alley at a brick wall studded with other windows and a rusty fire escape. There were also two doors, and an open kitchen area, similar to the one in his own apartment. He heard a faint rustling noise behind one door, and after a few minutes it opened and Rouge stepped through.

She blinked at the seated hedgehog in surprise, then looked delighted. "Good morning, Shadow! The prince has finally awakened?"

Shadow nodded and told her, "I must go. I must go to the Gizoid." It wasn't just the pull of the other Chaos Emeralds on his own; the Gizoid was powerful enough now that there was no alternative to giving him the last Chaos Emerald, and either disarming him or triggering his destructive impulses. If they did nothing, the training and power he had received would enable him to face down even GUN battalions long enough to absorb their weapons, and they would then bring in more powerful equipment in what would become a ceaseless spiral until the robot went berserk. _And GUN __**will**__ consider him enough of a threat to attack him, even after being told that such a move would mean disaster. Better to get it over with now, one way or the other, while I have a chance to steer the process. Once GUN attacks and the Gizoid goes on the defensive, it may be too late to restrain it._

Rouge didn't seem pleased, which surprised him - he'd assumed she'd be glad to see the last of her uninvited guest. According to her clock, which displayed the date as well as the time, he'd been asleep several days. "What? You can leave when you please, but don't you dare pass out on me again! Who do you think dragged you here in the first place?"

"You?" He was surprised again._ I assumed it was the Gizoid. What was it Father used to say about assuming things? _

"That's right! Aren't you even going to thank me!? It figures. You males are all alike, you know that?"

Shadow winced. Manners had been drilled into him by Maria and the Professor, as well as his flash training. He was worried about what would happen with the Gizoid, but that was no excuse for rudeness. "Thanks, Rouge," he began.

"Emerald Beach."

"Huh?" He blinked at the non-sequitur.

"You're looking for Emerl, right? He's always there in the mornings, with Sonic. I went ahead and told them you'd be coming after him, anyway."

"I know. I heard you talking to Amy last night. You know they've recovered the sixth Chaos Emerald, don't you?"

"What, the blue one? No, when did they do that?" Rouge frowned. "And how do you know, anyway?"

"When the Doctor smashed the Chaos Emeralds, it messed up the patterns of the Chaos energies." Seeing her puzzled look, he tried to explain. "You know how you can use iron filings to see the bands of magnetism from a bar magnet? Draw the lines on a piece of paper and then crumple the paper, and that's about how the Chaos energies felt. Only it was a dozen interconnecting tangles, one for each fragment, and they were pulling intact gems' energies out of true as well.

"I don't know who got the pieces of the blue Emerald back, but I know that yesterday evening the tangles all straightened out, and now I can tell by the resonance through my gem that the other six Emeralds are not only whole, but together. Presumably, the Gizoid has all of them now, which means I _have_ to go to it, and soon; we're too far down this path to turn back."

"You think we did the wrong thing." It was more a statement than a question.

Shadow looked at Rouge solemnly. "I don't know. I think it would have been safer and far better if the thing had stayed lost, but once Doctor Eggman found it, it was too late for that. One way or another, he would have gotten the Chaos Emeralds for it; at least this way, _we_ had control over what the Gizoid learned. I only hope that will be enough." He frowned suddenly. "Did you ever find out what the key phrase was, to render him harmless?"

"Oh, no!" Rouge looked at him in alarm. "I forgot all about that! I read all of Gerald's notes, even in his secret diary–"

"Secret diary?"

"He had it hidden in his room on the ARK," she started to explain, but Shadow was shaking his head.

"No, if I know the Professor, he wouldn't have something like that hidden. He'd want me or Maria, at least, to be able to find it." Shadow grimaced, pressing a palm against his forehead as if it would help him remember. "You told me you'd read his official diary, didn't you? You didn't see anything in there?"

The bat started to shake her head. "No. No, I did–" Shadow looked up as she stopped mid-word. Rouge's eyes flickered as she thought. "No, wait. There was something . . . there _was_ something, I know it. Look, you go get the Gizoid, I don't think I trust Eggman to wait much longer before seriously trying to retake it, now that it has six Emeralds. I'll meet you– where?"

Shadow considered. "Not at the beach. If I give it the last Chaos Emerald and it goes berserk, there are too many people in the area who might get hurt. The ARK would probably be best, but . . . . The Doctor's hideout. The one here in the city. That'll have some sort of shielding, surely, in case of attack; that will serve to keep the Gizoid in, at least temporarily. But that's not all we need to do." Old memories of the half-understood changes that the Professor had made slotted into place with fragments of his more recent dreams . "Listen, Rouge. Professor Gerald was trying to program the Gizoid with an emotions-based AI, and I think our best bet is to pull on those emotions to gain the most advantage. So. This is what we're going to do . . . ."

It was nearly ten minutes later that Shadow stood up, and headed for the door. He wasn't certain that the plan would work, but he did feel convinced that it was the best way to proceed. He paused as he opened the door, and looked back at Rouge as a flicker of dream crossed his mind. She gave him a querying glance. "Heh," he said quietly. "Ally."

Rouge blinked, not sure what he was referring to. "Wh-what? You got a problem with it?"

"No," he shook his head. "I don't." With the ghost of a smile, he stepped into the hall and closed the door behind him.

It wasn't very far to Emerald Beach, and he skated the distance rather than using Chaos Control, turning his plan over in his mind. A flash of golden movement caught his eye as he glided through Emerald Town, and he paused. The Gizoid had just come out of Tails' laboratory, and was heading up the road in the direction of the beach. Shadow quickly ducked over to the next block and passed it, arriving there first. Sonic was goofing off on the sand, tossing a couple of rings in the air and catching them again, then trying to juggle them. _With an emphasis on 'trying'_, thought Shadow, _even I can do better than that. Now, where is . . . ah, good, here comes the Gizoid._ He could see the robot approaching from where he stood, but Sonic's view was blocked by several of the rock outcrops. Shadow stepped forward, into Sonic's line of sight.

"Shadow!?" Sonic looked at the black-and-red hedgehog in surprise, then flung two of the golden rings at him, frisbee style. Shadow caught one and used the barest touch of Chaos energy to halt the other in midair beside his head. He then flicked both of them back to the blue hedgehog.

"Sonic the Hedgehog," he said thoughtfully. Then in a sharper tone, "Where is Emerl?"

"He's at Tails' place," Sonic answered automatically, then caught himself. "Tell me something," he slipped one ring over his wrist and sent the other back to Shadow again, "why are you after him, anyway?"

Shadow considered his answer, noting over Sonic's shoulder that the Gizoid had arrived and was standing beside one of the outcrops, listening. "I'm not here to steal him," he assured the blue hedgehog, realizing that Rouge might have told Sonic about his 'mission'. "I'm here to welcome him, as a fellow weapon of war." The gold ring flew back to Sonic again. _Huh, I haven't played frisbee since Maria and I did on the ARK. _

Sonic caught the ring, but held it in both hands, while he frowned at Shadow. "Welcome him?" Shadow wished he knew what the other was thinking. Sonic shook his head and finally tossed the ring back. "Emerl's no weapon of war. He's just a robot who's learned some cool tricks. Tails powered him up, Knuckles and I taught him to fight, and Amy and Cream put some manners on him - in fact, he even saved Cream from the Doc's hideout last night. He's no weapon."

_Hmm, that must be where the last Chaos Emerald came from. _The ring whirred back to Sonic again. "Don't you know? His awakening as the legendary weapon of war, the Gizoid, is close at hand." He knew Rouge had told Sonic this, but wasn't sure if the blue had forgotten it, or was just willfully ignoring the facts.

"Awakening?" That did seem to puzzle Sonic, although Shadow wasn't sure why.

"He already has six Chaos Emeralds, right?" When Sonic agreed, Shadow continued, "And with my Chaos Emerald, that makes seven." The golden ring, which was itself Chaos energy solidified, flew back and forth between them. "The Gizoid will be awakened when it has collected seven Chaos Emeralds - right now, its true power lies dormant. However I can feel it: a power far greater than the Eclipse Cannon's. Can't you?"

Sonic hesitated, the ring hanging forgotten from one hand. Shadow wasn't actually certain that Sonic _could_ feel the Chaos energy, but surely he must if he could use the Chaos Emeralds! "I know that collecting the seven Chaos Emeralds together yields unlimited energy," he said slowly. (_Sonic the Hedgehog, doing something slowly! That's one for the record books._) He shook his head in confusion. "Are you trying to tell me that awakening Emerl is dangerous?"

"Dangerous?" Shadow wanted to shake him. Hadn't the hedgehog heard _anything_ Rouge and Tails had told him about the Gizoid? "He's a _weapon_! One created with enough power to destroy the _world_! Awakening him is sheer madness!" Behind Sonic, the Gizoid cocked its head. Shadow wondered if it knew anything about its true purpose at this stage, or if it was completely restrained until it reached full power.

Sonic, however, scoffed and flung the ring at Shadow hard enough to sting though the red-and-white gloves. "I don't think he has it in him. The Emerl I know would never destroy the world. What about you? You say he's the ultimate weapon, but weren't you supposed to be the military's ultimate secret weapon? Maybe you've forgotten, but I seem to recall you saving humanity at some point."

**That** stung more. Shadow didn't flinch but he narrowed his eyes. "That was for Maria." If Sonic was going to attack him on that point . . . .

But apparently Sonic was thinking along a different track entirely. "Exactly!"he declared, clearly thinking he'd proved whatever he'd meant. "If you have a heart, you would never use your power for the forces of evil - there's _no way_ you could! Weapons don't have hearts, but you and Emerl both do! You're people, not just weapons!"

Shadow snorted, feeling both irritated and absurdly pleased. The blue hedgehog wasn't flattering him, he clearly meant what he'd said. Sonic was making good sense, in fact, but he'd (typically!) picked just the _wrong_ time to do so. The point of this conversation - the reason Shadow had started it - was to highlight to Emerl that he was intended to be used as a weapon, and expected to destroy without question, to encourage him to reject the deadly power of the Gizoid when it awoke. Sonic was _supposed_ to be being concerned about the idea, so that the worry would affect the emotion-based AI the robot was supposed to have, while Shadow was supposed to reassure and offer an alternate solution - that of the code phrase. _So that leaves __**me**__ to play devil's advocate, when I'm one of the 'devils' myself. And I'm supposed to have given over fretting about my past! _"No, you are wrong," he countered, his voice rising. "We were created as weapons. If the people of this world ever want peace, they must destroy us."

Sonic gaped at him, appalled. Shadow was a bit surprised at his own words as well. _Did I just insist that I need to be murdered? _Before he could come up with a suitable follow-up, Sonic got over his shock and spoke again. "And another thing!" Apparently he'd decided to ignore Shadow's last comment. "Rouge said that there's a keyword that can free Emerl! If we could find out what it is, he can become just a normal robot, following the conscience that Professor Gerald programmed into him."

_He did listen, then. Of course, that was supposed to be my argument. Ah, well, in for the lamb . . . _"Ha!" the dark dokan said scornfully, "such hopeless dreams! Weapons have no need of a conscience. Freedom? What use is a weapon that does not follow orders?" _Pot, kettle_, whispered a little voice in the back of his mind. "I have a different kind of link with the Gizoid - like me, it's a weapon! A weapon to be used by its master!" He suppressed the shiver that ran down his spine at the last words, remembering Black Doom's cool assurance that Shadow would do as the alien overlord commanded.

"Shadow," Sonic started, then unexpectedly gave up and threw his hands in the air. "All right, all right! Just take Emerl, already! If you're not going to listen to me, then do whatever you want!"

Shadow blinked, wary of this sudden capitulation. And perplexed by it. "Then you don't care if I exterminate Emerl?"

It was Sonic's turn to snort. "I'd like to see you try!"

"You don't think I could?" Shadow was offended, although he wasn't certain himself that he could do such a thing.

"You have a heart," replied the blue dokan confidently, abruptly as cocky and self-assured as ever. "Emerl has a heart. I don't think either of you has it in you to kill. Maybe you guys should just play games together or something?"

Shadow found himself at a loss for words. This part of the plan had decidedly not gone as intended, and he wasn't sure where to take it from here. Fortunately, Emerl made the next move himself. "There is a Chaos Emerald here," the robot declared as it stepped forward from where it had been observing the two hedgehogs.

Sonic jumped. Apparently he'd been so focused on Shadow that he never had noticed their silent observer. "Emerl? What are you doing here!?"

"He probably felt my Chaos Emerald's power," said Shadow, before the robot had a chance to answer. "I can feel it resonating with him." Both statements were true, if not the entire truth. He pulled out the Chaos Emerald, allowing its energies to radiate unshielded.

The robot went rigid, if such a thing were possible for a being made of metal. The blue eyes locked onto the green gem and, in a very different voice it all but gasped, "You! You have a Chaos Emerald. Give me . . . the Emerald. Power . . . give me power!!" Suddenly the metal body quivered, with a faint ringing sound.

"Emerl!" Sonic was appalled.

The robot turned to Sonic as if nothing at all were wrong, and asked in a normal but puzzled tone, "What's wrong, Sonic? Why are you looking at me like that?"

Shadow was a bit shaken by the Gizoid's reaction himself, but covered it quickly. "Perhaps now you believe me. He was created as a weapon. You were lucky in that you met him before he awakened. But you cannot deny the Gizoid's true identity!"

"Sonic?" asked Emerl again.

"Go with Shadow, Emerl," said the blue, with a nod to his darker rival. "I want you to find out who you _truly_ are." He looked hard at Shadow as he spoke the last sentence, leaving the black hedgehog wondering which of them Sonic was talking to: the Ultimate Being; or the Ultimate Life-form?

"How?" Two pairs of ears cringed as Emerl scraped metal fingers across his metal skull. _Robots should not scratch their heads_, noted Shadow.

Sonic shrugged. "How else? Get Eggman to tell you!"

Emerl bounced on his toes and clapped his hands. Shadow vaguely recalled Amy's little rabbit friend doing something similar. "That chubby old guy? That sounds like fun! We'll be back soon, then."

"Okay," Sonic laughed, and added, "and try to find out what that 'chubby old guy' is up to! See if you can find out more about that 'Final Something-or-other' that Knuckles was talking about." This time he was clearly speaking to both Emerl and Shadow. "You never can tell what that old man is planning."

Shadow nodded. He didn't like Sonic telling him what to do, but knowing what the Doctor was up to was important. "I, too, have things about which I wish to speak to Doctor Eggman. Let's go, Emerl." Unable to resist a touch of drama, he added, "So begins our path to ruin." _Because it may well be, if Rouge can't find the code, or it doesn't work._

Emerl's parting line was completely different. "Oh, and tell Mom that she has to go jogging and do at least two hundred sit-ups! And she has to eat salad with no dressing!"

Sonic's laughter followed them as they left the beach. "Some 'Ultimate Weapon' you are!"

Shadow skated quickly through Emerald town. Emerl initially ran beside him, but then switched to skating himself, apparently converting his feet somehow into hovershoes. They reached Central City proper, and Shadow led the robot in the direction of Night Babylon. At Martins Crossing, a streetlight pole suddenly crashed down before them, making the pair skid to a halt.

"Chaos Gamma!?" Emerl spotted the instigator before Shadow did.

"Target: codename 'Shadow'," grated the mechanical voice, as the red robot emerged from an alley. "Objective: destroy."

Shadow raised an eyebrow. "It appears that the good doctor thinks I'm his enemy," he said mildly. That was . . . different. Usually the Professor's grandson assumed Shadow was on his side. Also, there was something . . . peculiar . . . about this robot. It clearly didn't have a Chaos Emerald, intact or fragmentary, but some form of Chaos energy was gathered around it.

Gamma continued, "Target: codename 'Gizoid'. Objective: destroy."

"What?" exclaimed Emerl. "The Doc wants you to capture me, stupid, not destroy me!"

Shadow felt a corner of his mouth turn up at the Gizoid's indignation. "Perhaps his plans have changed," he suggested. Emerl whirled to face him.

"Well that's silly. How does Doctor Eggman expect me to take over the world for him if I'm in pieces? I can't copy his Final Egg Blaster if I'm broken," argued Emerl, casually raising a hand to deflect a blast from one of Gamma's guns. "Please don't do that," he added to the red robot. "We're having a discussion."

"Destroy all targets," was the only reply. It was followed by a cluster of grenades launched at Shadow, who had no problem evading them, but chose to be a bit more aggressive in his response than Emerl had been.

"Chaos Control!" He teleported himself behind, and a bit above, Chaos Gamma, and kicked out hard as he dropped. Since the red robot was floating on a cushion of air, it couldn't actually stagger forward, but it managed something equivalent. Emerl gave a sort of start, and slammed the robot with a punch he'd learned from Knuckles, but seemed a bit half-hearted about it, which he certainly hadn't learned from the echidna. After a brief battle, Emerl crumpled a panel on the other robot's thorax that caused a slim, glowing object to fly out. Shadow felt the Chaos energies swirling around it and caught the thing.

Leaving Gamma to Emerl for the moment, he tipped the object in his hand. It wasn't a Chaos drive, which consisted of purified Chaos energy condensed into a tube, but it appeared to be something similar. More like a shard of solidified energy, sort of like the rings, but not natural. _More powerful than either the rings or the drives . . . maybe made similarly to Tails' fake Chaos Emeralds? _It was a better copy than those, though, because this actually was drawing energy into it, and the fake Emeralds drew nothing, although they could, as Sonic had demonstrated, convert energy put into them, and Tails had been experimenting with using Chaos drives in conjunction as a sort of battery for the fake Emeralds. _On the other hand, this thing draws in, but,_ he 'looked' it over carefully with his Chaos sense_, it doesn't have an outflow. I bet these things explode after a bit, and that won't be pretty._

The red robot groaned and collapsed, drawing Shadow's attention back. "How did I lose? I even acquired an Emerald shard."

Shadow snorted and stepped forward, tossing the 'Emerald' shard in his hand. "The only one who can use the true power of the Chaos Emeralds is me."

"Destroy," rasped the robot and trembled violently as it tried to rise. "Destroy!"

"Fool," muttered the black hedgehog. "Emerl, do you see? This is the fate for weapons of war. Their masters task them beyond their abilities and abandon them to their fortune." He tossed the shard down beside the broken mech; it was of no use to him, and he didn't want to be around it when it overloaded. "If they are given no choice but to battle, eventually they will lose, and be discarded."

"I don't understand," said Emerl, sounding more lost than any robot should be able to. "I'm sad, Shadow."

The dark hedgehog looked at him measuringly. _'Sad' is not a robotic concept. Perhaps there is hope for him, after all. _ "I know," he said quietly. He looked back at the shattered robot, still proclaiming it would 'destroy, destroy', but unable to fight or flee. "It can't move anymore," he said, feeling rather sad himself. "Let's go. We're almost to Night Babylon and the Doctor's lab."

"Gamma," said Emerl softly, but he followed Shadow when the hedgehog walked off.


	15. The Decision of a Weapon

14. The Decision of a Weapon

Emerl let them in to Gimme Shelter by the simple expedient of deactivating the electronic lock. He confided to Shadow that it was one of the tricks Rouge had taught him for thieving. The dark hedgehog was amused. _So, she did try to train him as a thief, after all. _He suddenly remembered the Gizoid sneaking through the room the night before and taking the Chaos Emerald shard from her room, and smirked. _Hoist on her own petard, that time._ His amusement vanished when he saw the main computer, however, identical to the one on the Doctor's whale ship - and to the one in the room where he'd dimly seen the endless ranks of clones. Emerl was looking at him, and he shook off the chill of memory. "The Doctor's Mother Computer," he said, "I never imagined I'd be here again." _Well that's true enough. Now what? Oh yes, strengthen the connection between us. _He carefully did not look over his shoulder or at the ceiling; he had to trust Rouge had done her part. "Tell me," he faced the computer, but expected an answer from someone else. "What am I? What is the Gizoid? We were created as weapons so why do we have hearts? Why do we have souls?"

"Professor Gerald Robotnik–" started a voice behind them. The Gizoid actually jumped; Shadow merely breathed a silent sigh of relief as he turned to face the bat. He couldn't relax completely, though, because he didn't know exactly what she was going to say.

"Rouge!?" he feigned surprise.

"_You_ are his ultimate creation, the Ultimate Life-Form," she said calmly, answering his questions in order. "And during the output experiment of a Chaos Emerald, he discovered and reactivated the ancient battle weapon, Gizoid. Yes, you, Emerl."

"Where did you learn that?" An important question; Shadow didn't want Emerl to think they were making this up, he needed to see it was verifiable.

"I looked it up on the Doctor's computer. I also found one of Professor Gerald's old research files." The bat's voice was slightly stiff, as if repeating a line rehearsed for a play.

"Why did Professor Gerald give me a soul?" What actually puzzled Shadow was not that the Professor had 'given' him one, but that he thought that he _could _give such a thing. To Shadow's mind, a soul was an inherent part of life and personhood - he was born, so therefore he had a soul. Of course with robot it was different, since they were not truly alive; he could see how Gerald might think he could program one to at least simulate having a soul.

"He wasn't interested in researching weapons," said Rouge simply. "He was researching a cure for his granddaughter, and a way to bring happiness and hope to all people. But he was forced by the government and the military to use his research for war machines. That's why he gave you and the Gizoid a soul. A soul identical to his beloved granddaughter, Maria."

_That _caught the dark hedgehog unaware. "Maria," he murmured involuntarily. Did the Professor really believe he'd given Maria's soul to Shadow? Program a copy for the Gizoid, yes, but . . . even if he could 'give' a soul to Shadow, how could he give Maria's? Surely she needed it herself!

Rouge continued, looking solemnly at Emerl, who was standing silently beside Shadow, "His hope was that no matter how crazed and obsessed with destruction mankind might become, the weapons themselves would never fight." Then she surprised the black hedgehog again. "Shadow, you are afraid of your own power. It troubles you. But you've never used it recklessly; you've never used it selfishly. Gerald's wishes have come true."

Shadow was speechless. _This_ had not been part of the plan! But Rouge was continuing, "You too, Emerl."

"Me, too?" the robot all but whispered. Shadow wished he knew what it was thinking.

"You were created as a weapon, yet you feel sympathy for living things. However, _Gerald_ did not create you, and he was unable to completely erase the destructive powers within you. That part of you still exists. So he programmed you with a special code. And if the keywords of that code were to be activated, Gerald's program would be complete. You'd become just like Shadow."

_We hope. Although two of me might be too many for some people._ "What are the keywords?" he asked, hoping that she'd found them.

"Bring hope to humanity," she answered promptly, switching her gaze to meet his red eyes.

_That sounds more like Maria than Gerald, _he thought._ Maybe he was planning for her to do the honors? _He glanced out the corner of his eye at the Gizoid; it appeared to be thinking hard, if the angle of its head were any indication._ Time to start the endgame, and pray that we all survive it. _His voice sounded a bit odd in his own ears as he commented, "'Bring hope to humanity', huh? Kinda touching. How do we input the code?" _As if I didn't know very well._

Rouge hesitated. "Now about that . . . ." Her voice trailed off as she glanced uneasily at Emerl. Shadow realized that _she_ was finally realizing just how much danger they were in.

"Well?" He sympathized, but the longer they delayed, the greater the risk that something would go wrong - like Doctor Eggman.

The white bat swallowed nervously. "You have to do it when he awakens."

"So basically when he absorbs this Chaos Emerald . . ." said Shadow. He drew it forth slowly, keeping one eye on the Gizoid in case it reacted as it had on the beach. But the golden form just stood, looking back and forth between the dokan, as the green light glittered in the palm of Shadow's hand.

"It would appear so," whispered Rouge. For once it wasn't greed that dominated her expression as she stared at the gem. Trepidation, perhaps, or fear. But she wasn't leaving, although when he'd outlined the plan, Shadow had recommended that she do so at this point, so that his would be the only life immediately at risk from the awakened Gizoid.

The black hedgehog took a deep breath, drawing as much Chaos energy through the Emerald as he could hold. _Here goes everything. _"Looks like I've got no other choice," he said, and stepped toward Emerl with the Chaos Emerald outstretched.

"Shadow!" squeaked Rouge. Black and golden heads both turned to look at her. "That's your . . ." she fumbled, uncertainly.

"It's all right," Shadow answered. "I–" he said the first thing that came into his head, "I will always be with Maria." _Well, that's the truth. If this works I have her memory - and according to Father, her soul - and if it doesn't, well, we'll all be together in heaven._

"Shadow," Rouge's voice was nearly inaudible as she shook her head, stepping backward. Emerl himself seemed uncertain; in contrast to his nearly pouncing on Shadow on the beach, when he had demanded the Chaos Emerald, he was now shaking his own head and leaning away from the approaching hedgehog. Shadow sincerely hoped that that was evidence of the robot's own realization of how dangerous he was about to become to his friends, and his unwillingness to do so.

"Emerl!" he commanded, a bit too loudly. He modified his volume slightly. "Take it! This is the last Chaos Emerald!"

A golden hand raised, hesitated, then inched forward. Then suddenly was pulled back. Shadow gestured with the gem, and the robot extended its arm again. The dark hedgehog could swear that the golden arm was trembling as it once again hesitated, with the hand above the glowing green crystal.

Suddenly the robot snatched the stone, taking two steps back as its chest plate opened and the ring of shining Chaos Emeralds was completed. The plate snapped shut and everything went very still as the robot ducked its head. The light seemed to be sucked out of the room as the Gizoid's eyes flared with stellar brilliance.

Suddenly the robot drew itself up, and a different voice, one that Shadow had heard a hint of on the beach and the entirety of in his dreams, rang out. "Show me your power, or I shall not obey. I represent all things, and shall become Gizoid, the conqueror of all." Shadow could feel the Gizoid drawing in Chaos Energy, and see it in the flickering of the electric lighting. This thing was easily as powerful as he was now, and with the Emeralds in its possession, it might well outlast him if it came to a battle.

"Well!" said Rouge, trying to appear as confident as ever, "That's a big difference!" It didn't work; her knuckles were probably as white as her gloves as she clasped her hands together.

Shadow drew himself up, summoning every bit of authority and confidence that he possessed or could feign and threw three-quarters of the Chaos energy he held into a Chaos bubble between himself and the Gizoid. Rouge had said that Sonic had used only a flicker of energy. He let it collapse, reabsorbing as much as he could. Meeting the blazing blue eyes squarely, he said, "Gizoid, ancient weapon of legend. I, as your new master, command you: Bring hope to humanity!"

The Gizoid made no move, and no sound. Rouge edged closer to Shadow, her wide, aqua eyes fixed on the robot. Shadow didn't move, maintaining his masterful (he hoped) pose and waiting to see if he had just saved the planet again - or destroyed it. Suddenly the Gizoid began to speak, rapidly, in a language that was completely unintelligible to the hedgehog. Since he had been flash-trained with at least the basics of every language spoken on the planet, that was unusual, to say the least. Faster and faster the Gizoid spoke, until even a language the two dokan knew would have been incomprehensible and then–

Abruptly the robot seemed to shrink slightly, the sapphirine glow of its eyes dropping back to almost nothing. Cocking his head at Shadow, Emerl laughed, "Hey, now! Don't go and get all serious on me like that, Shadow!"

Shadow gaped a moment, then picked up his jaw off the floor and snorted. "Look who's talking. Although _now_ you remind me a little too much of a certain spiky, smug little–"

"Watch your mouth!" crowed Emerl, cutting him off. Rouge had stepped away from Shadow again, and he could see her grinning with relief as she fanned her wings.

The dark hedgehog shook his head slightly. After that much tension, they were all being silly. "You're free now," he said, trying to rein his own expression back down from gleeful to his usual dispassion. "Eggman will no longer have any control over you." _At least, he won't as long as Father's plan actually worked. _He was still not entirely confident on that point, but the immediate danger seemed to be over.

"Thanks, Shadow! And you, too, Rouge!"

"Oh," said the bat casually, staring pointedly at her wrist, "I appreciate that, but if you really want to thank me, give me some jewelry!"

"There is one last thing I'd like to ask of you," said Shadow slowly.

"What is it _this _time," sighed Emerl with exaggerated patience, folding his arms and tapping a foot _exactly _like a certain smug, spiky little–. Rouge giggled.

_Well, that makes it easier_, thought Shadow. _Now I __**really **__want to hit him. _"Let us battle, one last time, to see who truly is the strongest!" He ignored Rouge's sudden scowl in his direction. "I wasn't completely healed before, but now I'm ready. I am the Ultimate Life-form, Shadow the Hedgehog!"

"You sure about that?" still sounding like Sonic, Emerl planted his fists on his nonexistent hips. "I don't want you whining about how you 'didn't have your Chaos Emerald' and stuff!"

Shadow masked a grin. His actual reason was that he wanted to find out _now_, in relative privacy, both how well he could fight the Gizoid _sans_ Emerald, and whether he could possibly use the Emeralds himself even though they were inside Emerl. He and Sonic had both used the seven Emeralds' powers to fight the Biolizard, and Sonic had shared that power with Knuckles and even Tails in order to take one Metal Overlord, so it was theoretically possible. He had tasked himself with the protection of the planet for Maria's sake, and it might still come to fighting against the Gizoid, and probably would at least come to fighting alongside it, so he'd rather find out now if what he knew would work, or if he'd need to get a new training program. Rouge was still glowering at him, although he wasn't exactly sure why. "I no longer need it," he told Emerl, referring to the Chaos Emerald. "I have Maria in my heart."

That was too much for the bat, who made a face. "You boys have fun," she said with a sigh. "I'm going home. I swear," she said as she walked away, "why do men like to fight so much?" The closing door cut off her monologue.

"See you later, Rouge!" Emerl called after her. Then he took up a fighting stance and glanced at Shadow. The hedgehog could all but see the cocky grin. "Ready?"

"When you are," was the calm reply. Shadow took up his own stance and watched the robot lunge forward. He gauged the feel of the Chaos Emeralds, but didn't try to draw any power yet. Instead, he relied on what he'd already stored and used his innate abilities to recharge. Emerl used his standard hodgepodge of attacks, but Shadow had gotten accustomed enough to the combinations - and the erratic acquisition of invisible tails or wings - that the randomness no longer threw him off; it merely added to the challenge.

"Wait a second, Shadow." The robot suddenly broke off the fight.

"What? Are you backing down?" Shadow was surprised. Thus far Emerl had been more than willing to fight, and the hedgehog was just getting warmed up.

Emerl gave a quick little headshake that Shadow had seen Amy use once. "Would it be okay if I went to see Sonic, Tails, and everyone again?"

Shadow blinked, wondering why the robot seemed to think he needed permission to see the others anymore. _Well, I guess I did establish myself as his new master, but . . . then I said he was free. Maybe he thought I only meant free of the Gizoid's curse of destruction, although I'm not sure he's totally free of __**that**__ anyway. _ He shrugged, deciding it didn't matter. "Yeah. Tell them you're not a kid anymore; you're all grown up. Once you've spoken to them all, come back and see me. We'll finish our fight then. I'll be at my apartment near Central Highway. I'll be waiting!"

"Okay," called Emerl over his shoulder as he skated away. "You'd better be warmed up when I get back!"

Shadow shook his head as he skated off in the direction of his apartment. He let himself in and sat down, but in a few minutes found himself back on his feet and pacing._ It seems to have worked; it should have worked . . . so why do I feel disaster looming? _He tried to make himself relax, but he just couldn't. He nearly jumped out of his skin when someone knocked on his door.

It was Rouge. "Hi, Shadow, mind if I come in?" He stepped back to let her enter, but she paused in the doorway, looking at him closely. Then she stepped in, and asked as he closed the door, "What did we miss?"

"What?" Shadow didn't understand the question at first. Had they been supposed to get catching something?

"You look like you expect something to explode any moment. We nullified the Gizoid, didn't we? You said the passwords and Emerl overcame it, so what's wrong?"

Shadow looked at the floor. "I'm not sure," he said slowly. "Maybe it's just that I don't trust Father's programming; he meant well, but . . . . I think we're overlooking something major. I just can't figure out what it is."

He paced across the room and back, while the bat settled herself on the couch. "We have this robot, from ancient times, that's programmed to serve whatever master shows it the most power, and absorb all the weapons and fighting techniques that it sees." He stopped, struck by a thought. "You know, that would be a diabolical way to undermine an enemy. Either send the Gizoid out with an underpowered force - so that the enemy will show greater power by defeating the soldiers it's with - or simply give it as a gift. Everything the opponent shows it will both convince it of their power and be another link to their destruction, because when it goes berserk, nothing they do can stop it, since it will know every weapon and defense they have. And if another country were to manage to steal it or overpower it - then _they_ would become most powerful, and start it all over again. I wonder if it really is something made by the Babylonians, or something they got from someone else.

"But that's beside the point." He yanked his train of thought back to the correct track. "Anyway, we have this robot that absorbs and uses martial information and techniques. Professor Gerald picks it up, and discovers how dangerous it is, because of the inherent risk of it going berserk. He can't destroy it, so he tries to program it to have emotions, on the hope that it won't cause itself distress by attacking those it cares about. Then . . . then, well, everything falls apart and he somehow smuggles the thing out to his old factory, where eventually his grandson discovers it."

"Could Doctor Eggman have done something to it while he had it?" interjected Rouge. "Inserted a command to override the Professor's reprogramming?"

The red-striped hedgehog pondered a moment. "I don't think so. I mean, with enough time he could probably do anything that Professor Gerald could do, but the Doctor didn't seem to think much of the robot. He found it, but then he dumped it to pursue what he thought was a bigger prize, and although he copied it a while back, if the Phis' number is accurate, neither the Gizoid nor the Phis were put to use until just recently. And then he dumped the Gizoid on the beach– That's it! Or part of it, at least - why would the Doctor come all this way from his base - the Gizoid wasn't in the Gimme Shelter, remember, it was stored somewhere else - but he brought it here to drop on a beach where everyone knows Sonic the Hedgehog spends a lot of time."

"And everyone also knows that Sonic the Hedgehog is as curious as a gerbil and has as much caution as a charging bull," agreed Rouge. "So _of course _he was going to drag it off to Tails, who could learn as much as the Doctor already had about the Gizoid's abilities and need for Chaos Emeralds, and then _of course_, Sonic would collect the Emeralds for it and train it, so that Eggman could take it back. Only Knuckles stopped him from getting Emerl back, and then we spiked his guns by using the password." Shadow was shaking his head. "No?"

"Doctor Eggman wasn't really trying to get the Gizoid back from Knuckles. I'm not sure what he was doing, maybe just checking on our progress, but he didn't want it back at that point, or he could have taken it while Knuckles was trapped. We're missing something." He paced another few laps, then suddenly looked at Rouge. "Why are you here, anyway?"

The bat blinked at him, as if she'd forgotten the reason herself. "Oh. I . . . um . . . . I told you that the people who came to talk to you were ex-GUN personnel, remember? And that the woman had been contacted something called Nocturne looking to get hold of the Gizoid? And the same person or people had contacted the Doctor for the same reason? Well, the guy who was spying on me was linked to the People Are Human nuts, and I couldn't find a connection between him and your pair. Last night, I managed to get into the files of the PAH, and one for their major supporters is listed as Nocturne! It seems to be a group, but all contacts are online, and the money comes out of a bank account that - well, it shouldn't exist. I can't seem to find how the funds are getting into it; it seems to be generating money out of nowhere, which is of course massively illegal. I was able to link that account and the PAH e-mails to the ones that the Major received, but beyond that it truly is a dead end. I dumped the account over to the Finance people, so they'll probably get cut off, but I'd already pulled every trick I knew. I can't find any way to find out who or what this Nocturne is, or why they wanted the Gizoid."

"Hmm. Well if they're important, we'll probably hear more from them later. Hopefully the Gizoid is now safe regardless of who end up with him–" Shadow stopped dead. "Oh, no. That's what we're missing Rouge! The Gizoid has to listen to its master, its basic programming says it has to have one."

"But you set it free," she started.

"I told it it was free, but remember! Its deepest programming, what the Professor couldn't ever touch, was that it would _give allegiance to whoever displayed the most power_. So if someone shows it more power, it will become theirs."

"But, will that matter as long as the free-will programming is in effect?"

Shadow sat down on the couch beside the bat, thinking hard. "I don't know. I hope so, but I don't know.

"Look, Shadow," said Rouge, "the Professor knew about Emerl's basic programming, and he designed this emotion and free-will stuff to override it. So even if someone else does take him over, they still can't order him to attack his friends, because he won't want to hurt him. And anyway, all you have to do is show him that you have the most power and it's a moot point. Just go super on him, or show off that Chaos Control of yours in some flashy way, and even Eggman can't compete with that."

"I suppose," Shadow started, but was interrupted by a knock on the door. "That was fast," he told Emerl, who was fidgeting in the hall. He led the robot out to the parking lot behind the apartment building, nearly empty at this time of day, since most people were at work.

Rouge followed them out, but left as Shadow squared off with Emerl. It was a fast battle, since Emerl used a combination of Shadow's own moves, and Sonic's. Real spines clashed off force-generated ones as the two spindashed at each other, then uncurled to trade kicks, then recurled for homing attacks. Balls of Chaos energy flared and vanished, or trailed their targets until a countering bubble dispelled them. It was one of the most challenging battles the black hedgehog had ever fought, but Shadow was having the time of his life. He had an opponent that could stand up to his challenge, and for once, no time pressure or looming enemy. By mutual consent the two paused, and Shadow realized he was panting for breath, not due to weakness this time, but simply from the degree of work he was being pushed to. He had been drawing on the Chaos Emeralds, contained within the robot as they were, and he could feel that Emerl was using them as well. "I shall concede that you are my equal," he said grandly to Emerl, mentally picturing Sonic's answer to that statement.

The robot gave it. "Hey man! I'm just getting warmed up!"

Shadow snorted. "You're just as mouthy as Sonic, too." He spotted a familiar blue shape coming around the corner of the building. "Looks like we've got a guest."

"Hey! Emerl!" Sonic called, waving his hand to attract the robot's attention. He nodded at Shadow.

"Sonic!" crowed Emerl as he saw his friend.

Sonic flashed a cocky grin at his darker counterpart. "I figured Shadow wouldn't be able to give you enough of a challenge by himself, so I came!"

Shadow glowered back at Sonic. "Yep, you sound exactly alike."

Sonic kept grinning. "Whaddya say, Emerl? You wanna take us both on at once? It'll be tough!"

"No problem! No problem!" answered the robot excitedly. He added, "No holding back! I hope you two don't get hurt!"

Sonic's reply was to spindash at Emerl. The robot deflected him toward Shadow, who Chaos teleported out of the way, and reappeared behind Emerl. The robot spun to block his kick, and the battle was on. This time, Shadow drew much harder on the Chaos Emeralds, noticing that although Emerl could detect Chaos energy, as when he'd tracked the Emeralds and shards, he didn't seem to be able to tell when Shadow was drawing that energy away. When Sonic closed with the robot in a flurry of nearly invisible blows, Shadow experimentally tried drawing the Chaos energy from the robot itself.

He succeeded, but Emerl managed to pin Sonic before he had a chance to experiment further, and the blue hedgehog laughingly surrendered. "Haha, all right Emerl, lemme up! I yield, already!" The robot let Sonic up, somehow looking as smug as the blue hedgehog ever had. Then it made a sound like someone clearing their throat.

"Thank you, Shadow! And you, Sonic!" Emerl began rather portentously. "I'm so glad to have met you - and everyone else, too! I don't know what my creator was thinking when he made me, but I'm glad that he did because I got to meet all of you! When I first met you, I was like a little baby robot who couldn't do anything. Heh heh, I couldn't even talk! I was weak, but you all protected me, and played with me. I'm sure there were times when I was a burden, or in the way, but in my time with you, I never felt 'in danger' or 'worried' as Gerald programmed me to." Shadow blinked. _He remembers the Professor programmed him? I know I didn't tell him that, and I don't think Rouge did! _ But Emerl was continuing, "All I ever felt was 'fun' and 'excitement'. And 'happiness', too."

Shadow groaned. _I don't think I can stand much of this! _"This is ridiculous. I'll see you later," he said, and headed back to his apartment. Too much sweet and light. Sonic yelled something after him, but he ignored him.


	16. The Death of a Weapon

15. The Death of a Weapon

Two days later, Shadow got an alarmed call from Knuckles. "Hey, Shadow! This humongous _thing_ just appeared over Mystic Ruins. Can you see if you can find Sonic and let him know? I called Tails already, but you might find him faster. I think this may be the Final Eggbeater thing that Eggman was talking about!" The echidna hung up before the hedgehog could say anything.

Shadow hung up the phone, then tried to call Rouge, but she was out. So he skated across town at his best speed, guessing Sonic would be at the beach with Emerl, unless he'd already left town. The blue hedgehog had a habit of disappearing without warning when he got bored, and now that Emerl was supposedly 'safe', he would probably be leaving soon, if Shadow was any judge.

Today, though, Sonic was still in the vicinity, and Shadow found him on the beach as expected. "So, I said you are still far from being perfect!" he was telling Emerl, as the Ultimate Life-form paused atop one of the rocky outcrops. To Shadow's disgust, the formerly gold-and-tan Emerl was now the same shade of blue as Sonic, with red trim. Shadow dropped flat on the rough stone as the Eggmobile whined around the base of another sandstone cliff.

The old scientist cackled as he made his appearance. "Well, well, well," he concluded, "how are you doing, my dirty little spiked rat, and my useless weapon?"

Sonic bristled, looking very spiky indeed as his quills roused, and interposed himself between the robot and the human. "Eggman! Did you come all the way here just to mess with Emerl again? You know, being overly persistent won't win you any popularity contests!"

The Doctor laughed again. Then he roared, "Enough with the small talk! I have no use for this pile of junk anyway! I have completed the perfect weapon! I have installed the Final Egg Blaster on the ultimate planet-destroying battleship: the Death Egg!! Hah ha hah ha! It's stupendous! It's wonderful, I tell you, my greatest creation ever! With this, I will finally accomplish my goal of world domination! I can see it now - the world will bow before me! You can do naught but wait, cowering in fear, you poor weaklings. So long, my loud-mouthed, spiky, rat friend! The next time we meet, I shall be king of the world!" With a final cackle, he soared off in his hover pod.

Shadow stared after the man, stunned. _I knew that Doctor Eggman was . . . obsessed, but I didn't think he was __**that**__ insane. _He looked back at Sonic, who predictably (and reassuringly, although Shadow would die before he admitted it) seemed unconcerned by the scientist's mad pronouncements. The blue hedgehog snorted, and said to Emerl, "The old guy sure seems excited. Well, it looks like that 'Final Something-or-other' that Knuckles was telling me about is finally finished." He stretched his pale-skinned arms, lacing his fingers together in front of him. "I suppose we'd better do something about it."

"Sonic!" Tails came skidding around a corner, his tails spinning madly behind him. "Emerl! Have you seen it?" He slid to a stop in front of them, panting. "A giant battleship has appeared over Mystic Ruins! Right over the summit of that echidnan pyramid!"

"Hey, Tails! Yeah, we heard. I swear, that old guy just doesn't know when to give up! He couldn't get his hands on Emerl, so he goes and whips up another one of his weird inventions, and now," _again_, his tone implied, "he's talking about taking over the world."

"Well," said Emerl, "he was the one that woke me up in the first place. But now he calls me useless and a pile of junk? I'll show him just how useless this pile of junk is - if he's threatening the planet, I 've got a few things to settle with him!"

"You really have grown up, Emerl!" crowed Sonic, highlighting his own immaturity in Shadow's mind. Emerl's speech hadn't sounded particularly adult to him, although the dark hedgehog was in agreement with the robot about the need to defend the planet. "Looks like we've gotta hike to Mystic Ruins, Emerl, Tails!"

"All right!" cheered Emerl.

But the fox cub once again proved his intelligence by objecting, "But something's not right. Why would he be so out-and-out honest about his plans?" He then demonstrated his innocence by continuing, "Even the government keeps some things a secret." Shadow, all too familiar with governmental 'wisdom', nearly choked, and almost missed the next sentence. "It feels too deliberate, like he's trying to lure us into following him. I've got a bad feeling about this."

"Oh, come on, Tails," said Sonic, "You know Egghead always has to boast about his plans! He doesn't think it's any fun unless we're trying to stop him. You'd think he'd learn that we always do stop him, though."

"Yeah, come on, Tails," echoed Emerl. "You don't wanna let Egghead take over the planet, do you? He called me a pile of junk!"

Two older friends were too much for the young fox's doubts to stand against. Although he was clearly not happy, he gave in. "I'll go fetch a warp transporter so we can reach the battleship. You go on to Mystic Ruins, and I'll meet you there!"

In a cloud of sand, Sonic and Emerl were gone. Tails stared after them a moment, then turned and headed at a much slower pace towards his lab. Shadow jumped down from his rocky perch to join him. "You're quite right, you know," he told the startled fox. "The Doctor is being much too boastful about his plans."

Tails looked up at the red eyes hopefully. "Do you think you can stop him from going?" Shadow raised an eyebrow and Tails grimaced and looked down, and answered his own question. "No, of course not. Once Sonic sets his mind on something, no one can talk him out of it." The cub heaved a huge sigh. "Will you come with me, at least?"

"I was planning to," answered Shadow. He was surprised that Tails wanted his company, but rather flattered as well. The two picked up the pace, heading to the lab at Tails' top speed. Shadow considered his Chaos energy-level while Tails hunted for his device. The hedgehog had decided he had enough for a part-way teleport when he heard the cub groan. "What's wrong?"

"Darn!" Tails scowled at the metal disk he'd extracted from a cabinet. "I'd hooked this up to recharge when we got back from the Black Comet, but it got unplugged somehow from the charger." He pulled on a backpack that had also been in the cabinet, then stood up and tucked the teleport unit under his arm. "No help for it now, but we're not gonna be able to all go up there. Sonic and Emerl'll have to fight it out between them."

Shadow nodded and placed a hand on the fox's shoulder. "Chaos Control!" He didn't really have to say the words, but it seemed to help his focus. Tails looked around the Emerald Town train station, surprised at their landing place. "Since Emerl has the Chaos Emeralds, I thought I'd better conserve my energy," Shadow explained, "and, I've never ridden on a train before."

The cub giggled at the Ultimate Life-form's sheepish explanation, and showed him where to buy a ticket to Mystic Ruins. "We shouldn't be too late," he assured Shadow, "Sonic'll have to take the train, too, unless he wants to run all the way around the bay. We'll stop at Station Square, but then the train runs right across the water to Mystic Ruins."

Shadow was a bit surprised by that, but when they left Station Square, he realized that in fact it was the train tracks that ran out across the water on a long bridge, and not the train itself. The way Tails had phrased it, he'd wondered if it would turn into a boat, or something._ There is still so much about this world I don't know_, he thought. _Or at least understand properly._ He watched the light ripple across the waves below, and the beam of golden light that stretched from the mid-morning sun keep pace with the train. A group of ungainly looking birds flapped over the water, while another far more aerodynamic-looking type hung in the winds as if suspended by a thread. _Pelicans and seagulls_, said his flash-memories._ Hunting for fish._

When the train arrived, Tails guided Shadow through from the station to the jungle with easy familiarity, and thence through the dense trees to the ruined remnants of the echidna city. "It's not the whole city," the orange cub explained. "The shrine on Angel Island used to be a part of it too, and there are other ruins up there as well." He waved a hand at the closer of the two massive objects currently shading the jungle. Angel Island seen from below was a dramatic and unnerving sight. The rocky underparts looked like a small mountain range hanging upside down in the sky, with small flashes of green around the edges where grass or a stubborn bush hung over the rim. From where they stood, Shadow could also see the smaller island, connected to the main mass by a bridge, that held the aforementioned shrine of the Master Emerald. Shadow sternly repressed an urge to hunch his shoulders and run before the mass fell on him, but he increased his pace slightly. Tails smothered a grin, but wisely said nothing, merely increasing his own jog. The other object dominating the sky was a silvery hemisphere, that looked to be modeled after the Space Colony ARK. Sonic and Knuckles were looking at it from the top tier of the ziggurat that formed the most noticeable of the Mystic Ruins.

"Sonic!" called Tails, waving, as they reached the foot of the ancient structure. He and Shadow made their way up the crumbled stone steps to join the other two. After they reached the top, Shadow spotted Emerl standing halfway down far side of the pyramid, inspecting a pair of small statues beside what appeared to be a trapdoor.

"Tails!" Sonic greeted the cub without looking away from the metal object overhead. Knuckles nodded to Shadow as he and the cub joined the echidna and the blue hedgehog. The stela that crowned the ziggurat made a strange centerpiece for the cluster of dokan. Emerl looked up at the greetings, and clambered up the ledges of the step pyramid to join the others.

"I've brought the transporter," Tails told the others, "but . . . it takes a while to charge up, and it only has enough power for one person to go."

"Really?" Sonic considered for a fraction of a moment, than turned to the robot. "Well, Emerl? You should be the one to go, shouldn't you?"

"You bet!" said Emerl instantly.

"Why don't you go pay the old man a visit, and 'thank' him?"

"Yeah!" The robot jumped onto the metal disk as Tails set it down.

Tails looped a communications device around Emerl's neck, instructing him to push the yellow button when he was ready to return. The cub fiddled with the transporter's control box, then said, "Emerl, are you ready? Then I'll turn on the transporter . . . On!" The robot vanished in a smear of light.

Tails shrugged out of the backpack and opened it to reveal a receiver unit. The screen showed a standard Eggman control room, with the Doctor himself looking rather disgruntled as he faced the screen. "Hey Emerl," Sonic yelled, right in Shadow's ear. He ignored the glare from the darker hedgehog and continued, "Can you hear me? We're watching from a monitor down here! We can project our voices to your location, so we'll be cheering you on! Amy, Cream, and Rouge should be here soon too!"

Shadow rubbed his ear. "You don't have to yell loud enough for your voice to carry up there," he grumbled. "That's the point of the radio."

Sonic flashed that stupid grin at him, and a quick "Sorry!"

"Hey! Doctor!" Emerl was saying up on the Death Egg, "Long time no see!!"

"Gii-zoid." You could have greased a pan with the Doctor's voice. "Looks like you've changed." The rotund figure in the monitor strolled closer, then stepped off screen, apparently circling the Gizoid before stepping back into view from the other side. He grunted, "From your new looks, I can tell you're not a war machine any longer."

"Yeah that's right!" answered Emerl defiantly. "My friends helped me!"

"That is very good. Very good indeed!" The human laughed delightedly as he studied a bank of readouts on one wall.

"You can laugh all you want," the Gizoid challenged him. "I'm here to defeat you and bring this to an end!"

Doctor Eggman's trademark moustache curled up at the ends as he grinned. Shadow felt a chill run through him. _We've been set up. _The Doctor's voice hardened as he said, "Let's just see how powerful you really are. It's time to test whether or not the legends of the Gizoid's strength are true!" He sat down, and his Eggmobile rose up around his chair. The hover car advanced on the Gizoid, launching small rockets as it approached. Emerl backed up, out of the control room into a larger, arena-like area. As soon as the Eggmobile was inside, the doors slid shut. "Ohohoho!" crowed Eggman, "You've gone right where I wanted you."

It wasn't a very long battle. The rockets seemed to be the Eggmobile's only weapons, and Emerl had no problem avoiding them, but they did make it difficult to get close to the vehicle. Ultimately, the robot had to simply absorb several hits to get close enough to attack the other machine. Pummeling one set of launching ports closed or nonfunctional didn't help, though, because another set opened elsewhere on the round vehicle. There also appeared to be a forcefield shielding the doctor himself, although it was a bit difficult for the watchers at Mystic Ruins to be certain. The end was a foregone conclusion, though; eventually the Doctor ran out of rockets or ways to launch them, and suddenly reverted to 'sniveling coward'.

"Please, I- I beg of you! Forgive me! Please have a heart! I swear I will never do this again!" the scientist whined, hiding behind his hands. Shadow felt an alarm ringing in his head. _This is it! Whatever he's planned, he's going to do it now! _He grabbed for the microphone, but Sonic waved it out of reach, like it was some stupid game.

"Hmmph," came Emerl's voice over the receiver, "You're not very cool Eggman. See you later! Try not to do anything bad anymore, okay? If you're smart enough to build battleships like this, I'm sure you can find other things to do!" _No! _thought Shadow desperately, trying again to grab the microphone, _he's going to let him go!_

"But, I wanted to thank you for waking me up. Thanks to you, I've learned the true meaning of friendship. I'm not just a weapon - I'm a living being with a heart and free will!" Emerl raised a hand to trigger the return button - and the Doctor pounced.

"Hah!" he cried, "NOW!!" Suddenly the wall behind him was a giant viewscreen, showing part of the moon, a crescent of the Space Colony ARK, and a broad sweep of stars. "Fire Final Egg Blaster!" A blaze of blinding white light swept out across the blackness of space. When it faded, the stars had vanished across a wide swath of sky.

"That's not possible!" gasped Rouge. Shadow looked back to see that she, Amy and Cream had joined them. All three were staring at the monitor, as horrified as Sonic and Knuckles, and even Tails.

"Of course it's not," he said harshly. "Any weapon generating that much light, we'd have seen light up the sky. Remember the Eclipse Cannon! It's a trick, to fool Emerl into thinking that the Doctor's more powerful than we are."

"Shh!" hissed Tails, "It looks like it's working!" Sonic was suddenly yelling into the microphone, but no sound seemed to be arriving at the other end. "Never mind Sonic, it's jammed!" The cub tapped a small red light blinking beside the monitor. "Now, shh!"

"Eggman," said Emerl, sounding shocked to his core, "What are you doing!?"

"Hey, Emerl!" Sonic yelled again into the microphone, "Oh no!"

Shadow slammed a fist against the stone in frustration. "No! Now I understand what's going on! The Doctor planned this all along!" That was something that not even the Gizoid's creators could have imagined - a falsification of impossible, unmatchable power. Nothing Shadow could do with Chaos energy, even with all the Emeralds to back him, could compete with the elimination of a quadrant's worth of stars. If only the Professor's reprogramming held in spite of the Egg Blaster's apparent power - but Shadow was acutely certain that it would not. The picture on the monitor began to shiver.

The Doctor chuckled, the contemptuous sound of someone who knows he's won. "You're so soft!" he sneered. "That's understandable, of course. You were raised by those little wimps! Their _weakness_ will be the end of you!" The human laughed again, and pointed at the black patch on the viewscreen. "Look! All the stars over there have been destroyed!" Then, in a more solicitous tone, "How do you feel Gizoid? Are you ready to resume capturing weaponry?"

"W-what? N-Noooooo!!!" The howl of robotic distress was suddenly cut short, as the picture began shaking violently again. Tails had yanked open the side panel of the monitor and was frantically doing something with its innards. Then the dreadful voice of the Gizoid spoke: "Initiating data acquisition." The robot marched out of the arena to the control room and began scanning the controls of the Doctor's Death Egg and Final Egg Blaster, followed by the chortling scientist. The robot began spewing out sounds, the unintelligible syllables that Shadow had heard before. Knuckles made a startled movement, but just then Tails jerked his head up from the machine.

"That's done it! Sonic, try it again!"

"Emerl? Emerl!?" Sonic yelled, and this time the sound came back from the speakers as well as from the blue hedgehog's throat, "Hey! Emerl!!"

"Show me your power, or I shall not obey. I represent all things, and shall become Gizoid, the conqueror of all." The harsh tones suddenly shifted to English. Then, as suddenly, faltered. "I shall . . . all things, and . . . conquer . . . all." Shadow felt Rouge grab his arm, and could feel her trembling.

"That's how it sounded at first," she whispered in his ear, "when Sonic found it."

Doctor Eggman had leaned in toward the camera Emerl was wearing. "Ho ho ho ho ho! There's still one little Link you guys didn't know about! The Gizoid will create a new Link if it encounters someone with _overwhelming _power!"

The picture shook again as the robot shivered, and the next voice was Emerl's, gasping in distress. "Power . . . overflowing . . . . Can't hold it in . . . . Can't hold it in . . . Sonic! Shadow! Help! In such pain . . . Mom! It hurts. The pain!"

"Emerl! Emerl! Hang in there!!! Emerl! Act tough like you always do! Come on, that's an order! Emerl!!!!" Sonic was shouting like a madman, although for once Shadow couldn't blame him. He knew far too well the agony of seeing someone you cared about suffering - dying - and being unable to do anything to aid them.

The Doctor was still too proud of his victory to see the danger. "Hoo ho ho ho! Now, Gizoid, establish a link with ME!

"Huh? Come on, listen to me!" Panic invaded in his voice as he realized something was wrong. "What's happening?"

The chill emotionless tone of the Gizoid: "Etherscatab po irts, po orat abey. Fire Final Egg Blaster at Earth."

Shadow nearly relaxed at that point; the Final Egg Blaster had been the fake light show that the Doctor had used on the arena viewscreen. But the Doctor didn't sound like it was a phony threat. "What!?"

"Emerl!" hollered Sonic, "Stop! No! He can't hear us!"

"One minute before firing." The Gizoid was unperturbed by Sonic's pleas or Eggman's arguments.

"Knock it off Gizoid! If the Earth is gone, I won't be able to achieve world domination!" Eggman tried to shove the robot away from the controls, but the robot brought up a metal hand - now golden again - and punched him, hard.

"Get out of the way." No excitement or emotion, just a cold statement as the human was flung from his Eggmobile and across the room to lie still.

A green light suddenly fell across Shadow and his companions. He looked around to see an enormous green gem rising up the steps of the pyramid. Sonic broke off in mid-shout. "Emerl! E– ! What's this? The Master Emerald? Where did this come from?"

"Angel Island, stupid!" snapped Knuckles. "See, Chaos is bringing it. I see! We can use this to stop the Chaos Emeralds from getting out of control! With the power of the Master Emerald we might be able to snap Emerl out of it! We gotta give it a shot!" As Knuckles spoke the gem moved higher, until everyone could see the transparent blue figure of Chaos beneath it. The creature wasn't so much carrying the giant Emerald as steering it; the Master Emerald appeared to be floating under its own power. When Knuckles reached out and placed a hand on it, it somehow shrank to the size of a Chaos Emerald without actually changing size. Shadow wasn't the only one to blink and rub his eyes at the peculiar feat. He looked back at the Master Emerald clearly resting in the palm of Knuckles' glove, at the same time small and huge, and had to look away from the eye-twisting sight. But he could feel the Chaos energy within the stone, being drained back to wherever it had come from, in the opposite manner as the Chaos Emeralds collected it_. It worked with the Biolizard. I hope it will be enough this time. _

"Sonic! Knuckles!" shouted Tails, "The transporter is ready!"

"Sonic," said Amy, "please . . . ." Her voice trailed off.

Simultaneously, Cream begged, "Sonic, Knuckles . . . . You've got to stop Emerl!"

"Even though he's grown up, he's still pretty high maintenance," grumbled the echidna as he stepped onto the teleport disk with Sonic.

"You'd better rescue him quickly," said Rouge. "I still need to turn him into a master thief."

"Okay!" Sonic answered them all, "We're off to rescue Emerl!"

"Turning on warp transporter," announced Tails, "now!" Again light smeared a cylinder above the teleport disk, and the two dokan faded as it did. Every eye locked onto the monitor, where Sonic and Knuckles appeared in a flash of light.

"Hey Emerl!" called Sonic, dashing away from the echidna, trying to draw the robot's attention, "Lookin' pretty good!"

The Master Emerald flared brilliantly as Knuckles held it up, calling out the ancient chant. "The potentiators are the seven Chaos Emeralds; their chaos from strength; their strength from the heart. Restrainer, control the Chaos." The Master Emerald shone even brighter as another light haloed the monitor screen - after a moment Shadow realized that light was leaking from the Gizoid's chest plate behind the camera.

"That light!" protested the Gizoid, "Can't see!!"

The twin light sources fogged the view, but they could make out the blow that sent Sonic sprawling, and then saw Knuckles, eyes closed in concentration as he held out the again full-sized Master Emerald, become centered on the camera. A golden arm stretched into view, and transformed into one of Gamma's laser guns. It emitted a thin red beam, shifted, and fired again - and the giant gem shattered. "What!" cried Sonic, as he raced to where the echidna had been flung by the blast, "The Master Emerald!!"

"Broken," muttered Shadow, staring at the now clear screen. The light from the Gizoid's chest had died in the same instant that the Master Emerald shattered. "Into tiny little pieces."

Knuckles groaned as Sonic helped him sit up. "I can't believe this!"

The camera view swung away from the dokan to the control panel. "Thirty seconds before the Final Egg Blaster is fired," stated the Gizoid. It seemed unconcerned by the continued presence of the hedgehog and echidna, and made no attempt to harm them further.

Shadow sank down to sit on the ziggurat's stone cap. "This is the final voice of the last great war machine," he said. He should have gone himself, but he'd trusted that Sonic and Knuckles could handle it with the Master Emerald. He didn't have enough power to transport himself up to the Death Egg, especially without knowing where exactly he needed to land. He could run, assuming the weapon was aimed at the pyramid, but didn't see the point. If it was anything like as powerful as the Doctor had claimed, running wouldn't be enough to escape. Even if it wasn't, the Gizoid would just move the ship and fire as often as needed to complete the devastation it desired. Besides, he couldn't just abandon those gathered in the shadow of the battleship. "So begins the destruction of the Earth. A natural result of ignorant human desires and greed."

Rouge swatted him on the shoulder. "Hey, you'd better deal with this situation in a more positive manner! I don't want to die!!"

The other two girls gasped. Cream huddled closer to Amy, who put an arm around the little rabbit. "Are we all . . . all . . . going to die?" the bunny whispered.

Amy's reassurances were drowned out by Tails who was still working desperately on his machinery. "Sonic!! Can you hear me? Emerl has absorbed too much energy and has surpassed his limits! He's highly unstable right now! If you can inflict a great amount of damage on him, you'll put a stop to the Gizoid! But, Emerl," he faltered suddenly, "will probably be destroyed. He won't be able to control the energy that he's absorbed within his body. . . ."

From the other end of the connection, Sonic, irrepressible as ever, laughed. "Emerl," he said, "always causing trouble. Even in the end." He suddenly appeared back on the monitor as the Gizoid turned to face him. "It's time for one final party!"

What happened next was impossible to detail, as the camera was quickly destroyed by a homing attack from the blue hedgehog. But the microphone somehow survived, and the battle sounded vicious. After several minutes of staring at the blank screen and wincing at particularly loud clangs or grunts, Rouge handed Shadow an electronic notepad. Shadow looked at it curiously, then recognized the text on the screen as Professor Gerald's diary. He scanned through the entries quickly. Some of it he'd read before, but some was new, and he realized that Rouge must have added in the entries from the secret journal she'd found, because the hedgehog was quite certain that Black Doom had never been mentioned in the official logs on the ARK. And as he read the last few entries pertaining to the Gizoid, the final piece of the puzzle fell into place. Accidently or not, Sonic had done exactly what was necessary by sending Emerl up to the Death Egg. The Professor had _not_ been certain that the emotion-based AI would override the orders of the Gizoid's Master, and had enabled one final option that the original creators would never had considered. Emerl had _had_ to smash the Master Emerald, because he needed to not be restrained. As long as he existed, there would always be the risk of someone else trying to order him to destroy. So he would destroy one final thing. That was why he had ignored Knuckles and Sonic after shattering the Master Emerald, rather than taking them out as well.

A chorus of gasps drew his attention back to the monitor. From the silence, it appeared the battle was over. Shadow knew who had won before Emerl's voice gasped and hesitated across the space between Mystic Ruins and the Death Egg. "Where . . . is here?" Several electronic crackles and buzzes interjected. "Who . . . am I?" _That's my line_, thought Shadow irreverently. He knew what was going to happen, but he couldn't walk away now. "Sonic . . . the pain . . . ." More crackles and hisses. "Shadow . . . . Dark . . . . Am I . . . am I . . .going to die?"

"Emerl!" Sonic sounded whole, and panicked. "Emerl!"

"Sonic," managed the robot.

"Are you all right? Come on!" Only static answered. "Can you walk? Let's return to Earth!" Shadow shook his head. Even after all that had happened, Sonic wasn't going to give up, or admit that fooling with the Gizoid had been a bad idea.

"It's . . . been fun," managed Emerl at last. "Thank you . . . Sonic." (Bzzt, crackle.) "This is . . . goodbye. I'm glad . . . I got to see everyone one last time . . ." A nasty spattering sound, with several small pops suggesting parts of the robot were exploding. Sonic yelped, as if something had hit him, but kept calling Emerl's name and encouraging him. "Has Tails . . . gotten stronger? I know he tried his hardest . . . to protect me," Emerl's voice had a peculiar, dreamy quality. Could a robot be delirious? "Thank him for me. And Knuckles . . . we had so much fun." Knuckles said something in the background that the microphone didn't quite catch. But Emerl was still talking to Sonic, and perhaps unaware of the echidna's presence. "Even though he is too . . . gullible. But he is such . . . a good guy, so, Sonic . . . don't tease him to much, okay? And Mom . . . Cream . . . . Looks like this is goodbye . . . I don't want to go!" Cream whimpered, and burst into tears at Emerl's cry, and buried her face in Amy's shoulder. Amy had tears running down her own face as she murmured something into her friend's long ears. Rouge had moved to the edge of the platform, turning her back on the group. She had her arms folded tightly to her chest, but her wings were trembling. "I'll miss all of you . . . .

"Shadow," the dark hedgehog started, and looked futilely at the blank screen, "should I be glad that . . . I was born?" More static, more tiny pops.

"Quit playing around!" snarled Sonic, making everyone jump. "Don't get all serious on me now, Emerl!" You . . . you think this is goodbye or something? Hey, come on Emerl!" The angry tone shifted to coaxing, "Let's go play! Everyone is waiting for us back home! Tails! And even Shadow and Knuckles! Hey, I know! We can trick Knuckles into doing some stupid stuff again!" ("Hey!" said Knuckles in the background.) "We'll go home and . . . and . . . we'll all laugh and have a good time!!! Right, Emerl? Emerl!"

Suddenly Shadow realized that Sonic had never _really_ failed before. He ran into battle with Doctor Eggman and his robots because he thought it was fun, and beat them, and ran on to do whatever else struck his fancy. His friends were there if he needed them, so he didn't concern himself much about them, and he could always rescue them if they got into trouble. He saved the world as much on a whim as anything, and had never, ever lost. Perhaps the closest had been when Shadow himself had fallen after the ARK battle with the Biolizard, but at that time Shadow had been a stranger and mostly an enemy, not a friend that Sonic had accepted responsibility for. And even then, Rouge had said Sonic had been troubled. But the desperation in the blue hedgehog's voice roused more sympathy for him than Shadow had ever thought he'd feel, because for once, Sonic wasn't playing around; it was being brought home hard that this wasn't all a game, and the good guys could lose.

There was an odd burring sound, then Sonic said, "Emerl has . . . disappeared."

There was a long silence, and suddenly the air above the warp teleporter lit up, and Knuckles and Sonic appeared. The echidna had an armful of green shards and the return device. Sonic stumbled off the disk and stood, his face nearly as pale as Rouge's fur. Amy handed the still-sobbing Cream over to Tails (who looked a bit alarmed) and ran over to hug the blue hedgehog. For once, Sonic didn't leap away; in fact he barely seemed to notice. His green eyes wandered vaguely across his assembled friends, while Knuckles did something to the heap of shards and the Master Emerald suddenly reformed itself. Chaos took the gem, rising with it into the air and back to Angel Island.

Shadow raised the digital pad Rouge had given him, attracting Sonic's attention. "This was Gerald's final program," he said quietly. Looking at the screen he started to read, "Should a weapon go out of control, the weapon will terminate itself. In the event that the emotions-based AI should fail, the Gizoid will intentionally place itself in a position where it will be destroyed, and not defend itself against that eventuality. It is my desire to bring hope to humanity."

Cream sobbed into Tails white ruff. "Emerl . . . ."

Sonic roused himself slightly, pulling away from Amy. "H-hey!" he said, with a ghastly attempt at his usual attitude, "Don't you cry, Cream!"

"Sonic!" she looked up a moment then buried her face against the fox cub again. The blue hedgehog moved over to crouch next to them.

"Come on, don't cry! Emerl is right here!" He opened his hand to reveal the crimson Chaos Emerald he held.

The little rabbit blinked at it a moment, then sniffled, "Yes! As part of the Chaos Emeralds!" She used one long lop ear to mop at her eyes, until Amy handed her a handkerchief.

After a moment Cream looked up at Sonic again. "Someday," she said, hesitantly, "if this world finally knows peace, if we no longer need weapons or fighting, if we can make this world a truly peaceful place . . . do you think we'll be able to play with Emerl again?"

"Yeah!" said Sonic patting her on the back. "Definitely."

Shadow looked away, curling his lip. "What's the matter, Shadow?" murmured Rouge, quietly enough that no one would overhear. "Don't you like fairy tales?" She followed him as he started down the steps of the pyramid.

"It's not a matter of liking," he answered quietly. "But I don't believe them. Emerl is gone, and although everyone tried their best, the Gizoid was just too dangerous. I wouldn't want it back, even if we could achieve Cream's fantasy world; its mere existence would be a threat to that peace."

"I suppose you're right," Rouge admitted. She looked up, idly watching Knuckles tacking his glide against the wind as he returned to Angel Island. "Ah, well. At least we don't have to worry about ever seeing a Gizoid again."

"True," said Shadow. "Let us be thankful for that."


	17. Epilogue

Epilogue

Somewhere else entirely, four figures stood in a darkened stone chamber. A single torch failed to light the cavernous throne room, merely silhouetting those present against the darkness and sparking faint glints from the gems set into the throne.

"My Lord, the accounts we opened in their computer network have been closed." The technician stood straight, but somehow managed to give the impression of cringing. His hereditary lord and leader was not one to take failure lightly, regardless of whether the one who had failed could have done anything about it.

This time, at least, he was lucky. The leader of the Nocturnus flicked a dismissive hand. "No matter. We have the information we needed from Earth. The Knuckles tribe has dwindled to a lone survivor, and not even a memory of Nocturnus remains." His eyes glinted with satisfaction beneath his tall headdress, the only visible part of the being within the purple robes.

"Will the knowledge from the Gizoid be a problem, my lord?" That was another speaker, a female lieutenant who was currently high in favor. Too idealistic, the technician thought, to realize how often their leader lied, or what his real plans were. Brave enough to challenge him when she learned the truth, although it would certainly mean her death. But the leader was raising an eyebrow at him, so he hastened to answer.

"No, Procurator Shade. The Gizoid has destroyed itself completely, so they can learn nothing of us from it or its remains. The peculiarities of that particular model mean that it could not access its memories without being fully awakened, and this 'Doctor Eggman' human ensured that it had no chance to divulge anything about its past once it was awakened."

"Well enough," rumbled their lord, rapping the butt of his staff on the floor. "See to it that nothing of the forgotten Gizoid gets leaked to that traitor Nestor. And continue with our plans. We do, after all, have all the time we need, while theirs is running out without their knowing it."

"Yes, Lord Ix." The technician bowed low, and retreated as quickly as he dared.

"Yes, Lord Ix," Shade echoed, and left the chamber with the easy stride of one who was confident in her position. The golden form of a Gizoid paced silently behind her.

The one left behind fingered the toothed crescent that topped his staff. The crescent moon for the Nocturnus, the teeth of a gear to symbolize their superiority over the blunt, brute force of their enemies. "So Pachacamac," he murmured, "you would not admit our superiority before, and placed so much faith in your precious power stones. Yet _who_ still lives, while your warriors and cities are gone to dust and ruin, and human animals pretend to civilization across the globe? I think the power stones, the 'Chaos Emeralds' as they name them now, will come to us as the gods intended. But not quite yet." He pondered a few moments as he settled onto his throne. "No, not yet. There are a few more preparations to make . . . ."


End file.
